Parallel Lives, Volume III — Plutarch
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Translation/edition: Bernadotte Perrin
Language: English
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## Pyrrhus

[Pyrrh. 1.1] 1 1 HISTORIANS tell us that the first king of the Thesprotians and Molossians after the flood was Phaethon, one of those who came into Epeirus with Pelasgus; but some say that Deucalion and Pyrrha established the sanctuary at Dodona and dwelt there among the Molossians. 2 In after time, however, Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, bringing a people with him, got possession of the country for himself, and left a line of kings descending from him. These were called after him Pyrrhidae; for he had the surname of Pyrrhus in his boyhood, and of his legitimate children by Lanassa, the daughter of Cleodaeus the son of Hyllus, one was named by him Pyrrhus. Consequently Achilles also obtained divine honours in Epeirus, under the native name of Aspetus. 3 But the kings who followed in this line soon lapsed into barbarism and became quite obscure, both in their power and in their lives, and it was Tharrhypas, historians say, who first introduced Greek customs and letters and regulated his cities by humane laws, thereby acquiring for himself a name. Alcetas was a son of Tharrhypas, Arybas of Alcetas, and of Arybas and Troas, Aeacides. 3 He married Phthia, the daughter of Menon the Thessalian, a man who won high repute at the time of the Lamian war and acquired the highest authority among the confederates after Leosthenes. Phthia bore to Aeacides two daughters, Deïdameia and Troas, and a son, Pyrrhus.
[Pyrrh. 2.1] 2 1 But factions arose among the Molossians, and expelling Aeacides they brought into power the sons of Neoptolemus. The friends of Aeacides were then seized and put to death, but Pyrrhus, who was still a babe and was sought for by the enemy, was stolen away by Androcleides and Angelus, who took to flight. However, they were obliged to take along with them a few servants, and women for the nursing of the child, and on this account their flight was laborious and slow and they were overtaken. 2 They therefore entrusted the child to Androcleion, Hippias, and Neander, sturdy and trusty young men, with orders to fly with all their might and make for Megara, a Macedonian town; while they themselves, partly by entreaties and partly by fighting, stayed the course of the pursuers until late in the evening. 3 After these had at last been driven back, they hastened to join the men who were carrying Pyrrhus. The sun had already set and they were near their hoped-for refuge, when suddenly they found themselves cut off from it by the river which flowed past the city. This had a forbidding and savage look, and when they tried to cross it, proved altogether impassable. For its current was greatly swollen and violent from rains that had fallen, and the darkness made everything more formidable. 4 Accordingly, they gave up trying to cross unaided, since they were carrying the child and the women who cared for the child; and perceiving some of the people of the country standing on the further bank, they besought their help in crossing, and showed them Pyrrhus, with loud cries and supplications. But the people on the other side could not hear them for the turbulence and splashing of the stream, and so there was delay, 5 one party shouting what the other could not understand, until some one bethought himself of a better way. He stripped off a piece of bark from a tree and wrote thereon with a buckle-pin a message telling their need and the fortune of the child; then he wrapped the bark about a stone, which he used to give force to his cast, and threw it to the other side. Some say, however, that it was a javelin about which he wrapped the bark, and that he shot it across. 6 Accordingly, when those on the other side had read the message and saw that no time was to be lost, they cut down trees, lashed them together, and made their way across. As chance would have it, the first of them to make his way across was named Achilles; he took Pyrrhus in his arms, and the rest of the fugitives were conveyed across by others in one way or another.
[Pyrrh. 3.1] 3 1 Having thus outstripped their pursuers and reached a place of safety, the fugitives betook themselves to Glaucias the king of the Illyrians; and finding him sitting at home with his wife, they put the little child down on the floor before them. Then the king began to reflect. He was in fear of Cassander, who was an enemy of Aeacides, and held his peace a long time as he took counsel with himself. 2 Meanwhile Pyrrhus, of his own accord, crept across the floor, clutched the king’s robe, and pulled himself on to his feet at the knees of Glaucias, who was moved at first to laughter, then to pity, as he saw the child clinging to his knees and weeping like a formal suppliant. Some say, however, that the child did not supplicate Glaucias, but caught hold of an altar of the gods and stood there with his arms thrown round it, and that Glaucias thought this a sign from Heaven. 3 Therefore he at once put Pyrrhus in the arms of his wife, bidding her rear him along with their children; and a little while after, when the child’s enemies demanded his surrender, and Cassander offered two hundred talents for him, Glaucias would not give him up, but after he had reached the age of twelve years, actually conducted him back into Epeirus with an armed force and set him upon the throne there.
[Pyrrh. 3.4] 4 In the aspect of his countenance Pyrrhus had more of the terror than of the majesty of kingly power. He had not many teeth, but his upper jaw was one continuous bone, on which the usual intervals between the teeth were indicated by slight depressions. People of a splenetic habit believed that he cured their ailment; he would sacrifice a white cock, and, while the patient lay flat upon his back, would press gently with his right foot against the spleen. Nor was any one so obscure or poor as not to get this healing service from him if he asked it. 5 The king would also accept the cock after he had sacrificed it, and this honorarium was most pleasing to him. It is said, further, that the great toe of his right foot had a divine virtue, so that after the rest of his body had been consumed, this was found to be untouched and unharmed by the fire. These things, however, belong to a later period.
[Pyrrh. 4.1] 4 1 When he had reached the age of seventeen years and was thought to be firmly seated on his throne, it came to pass that he went on a journey, when one of the sons of Glaucias, with whom he had been reared, was married. Once more, then, the Molossians banded together, drove out his friends, plundered his property, and put themselves under Neoptolemus. 2 Pyrrhus, thus stripped of his realm and rendered destitute of all things, joined himself to Demetrius the son of Antigonus, who had his sister Deïdameia to wife. She, while she was still a girl, had been nominally given in marriage to Alexander, Roxana’s son; but their affairs miscarried, and when she was of age Demetrius married her. 3 In the great battle which all the kings fought at Ipsus Pyrrhus was present, and took part with Demetrius, though still a stripling. He routed the enemy opposed to him, and made a brilliant display of valour among the combatants. Moreover, though Demetrius lost the day, Pyrrhus did not abandon him, but kept guard over his cities in Greece which were entrusted to him, and when Demetrius made peace with Ptolemy, sailed to Egypt as hostage for him. 4 Here, both in hunting and in bodily exercises, he gave Ptolemy proof of his prowess and endurance, and seeing that among the wives of Ptolemy it was Berenicé who had the greatest influence and was foremost in virtue and understanding, he paid especial court to her. He was adept at turning to his own advantage the favour of his superiors, just as he was inclined to look down upon his inferiors, and since he was orderly and restrained in his ways of living, he was selected from among many young princes as a husband for Antigone, one of the daughters of Berenicé, whom she had by Philip before her marriage with Ptolemy.
[Pyrrh. 5.1] 5 1 After this marriage he was held in still greater esteem, and since Antigone was an excellent wife to him, he brought it to pass that he was sent into Epeirus with money and an army to regain his kingdom. Most people there were glad to see him come, owing to their hatred of Neoptolemus, who was a stern and arbitrary ruler. However, fearing lest Neoptolemus should have recourse to one of the other kings, he came to terms and made friendship with him on the basis of a joint exercise of the royal power. 2 But as time went on there were people who secretly exasperated them against one another and filled them with mutual suspicions. The chief ground, however, for action on the part of Pyrrhus is said to have its origin as follows.
[Pyrrh. 5.3] It was customary for the kings, after sacrificing to Zeus Areius at Passaro, a place in the Molossian land, to exchange solemn oaths with the Epeirots, the kings swearing to rule according to the laws, and the people to maintain the kingdom according to the laws. 3 Accordingly, this was now done; both the kings were present, and associated with one another, together with their friends, and many gifts were interchanged. Here Gelon, a man devoted to Neoptolemus, greeted Pyrrhus in a friendly manner and made him a present of two yoke of oxen for ploughing. Pyrrhus was asked for these by Myrtilus, his cup-bearer; and when Pyrrhus would not give them to him, but gave them to another, Myrtilus was deeply resentful. 4 This did not escape the notice of Gelon, who therefore invited Myrtilus to supper, and even, as some say, enjoyed his youthful beauty as they drank; then he reasoned with him and urged him to become an adherent of Neoptolemus and to destroy Pyrrhus by poison. Myrtilus accepted the proposal, pretending to approve of it and to be persuaded, but informed Pyrrhus. He also, by the king’s orders, presented Alexicrates, the king’s chief cup-bearer, to Gelon, assuring him that he would take part in their enterprise; for Pyrrhus wished to have several persons who could testify to the intended crime. 5 Thus Gelon was thoroughly deceived, and Neoptolemus as well, and as thoroughly, who, supposing that the plot was duly progressing, could not keep it to himself, but in his joy would talk about it to his friends. Once, in particular, after a revel at the house of his sister Cadmeia, he fell to prattling about the matter, supposing that no one would hear the conversation but themselves; for no one else was near except Phaenarete, the wife of Samon, a man who managed the flocks and herds of Neoptolemus, and Phaenarete was lying on a couch with her face to the wall and seemed to be asleep. 6 But she heard everything, and next day went unobserved to Antigone the wife of Pyrrhus, and told her all that she had heard Neoptolemus say to his sister. When Pyrrhus learned of it, he kept quiet for a time, but on a day of sacrifice invited Neoptolemus to supper and killed him. 7 For he was aware that the chief men among the Epeirots were devoted to himself and were eager to see him rid himself of Neoptolemus; also that they wished him not to content himself with having a small share of the kingdom, but to follow his natural bent and attempt greater things, and, now that some suspicion had added its weight to other motives for the deed, to anticipate Neoptolemus by taking him off first.
[Pyrrh. 6.1] 6 1 And now, in honour of Berenicé and Ptolemy, he gave the name of Ptolemy to his infant son by Antigone, and called the city which he had built on the peninsula of Epeirus, Berenicis. After this, he began to revolve many large projects in his mind; but his hopes were fixed first and more especially on undertakings close at hand, and he found a way to take direct part in Macedonian affairs, on grounds something like the following.
[Pyrrh. 6.2] 2 Of Cassander’s sons, the elder, Antipater, killed his mother Thessalonicé and drove away his brother Alexander. Alexander sent to Demetrius begging for help, and also called upon Pyrrhus. Demetrius was delayed by matters that he had in hand; but Pyrrhus came, and demanded as a reward for his alliance Stymphaea and Parauaea in Macedonia, and, of the countries won by the allies, Ambracia, Acarnania, and Amphilochia. 3 The youthful Alexander gave way to his demands, and Pyrrhus took possession of these countries and held them for himself with garrisons; he also proceeded to strip from Antipater the remaining parts of his kingdom and turn them over to Alexander. Now Lysimachus the king, who was eager to give aid to Antipater, was fully occupied himself and could not come in person; but knowing that Pyrrhus was desirous to do Ptolemy every favour and refuse him nothing, he sent a forged letter to him which stated that Ptolemy urged him to give up his expedition on payment of three hundred talents from Antipater. 4 As soon as Pyrrhus opened the letter he perceived the fraud of Lysimachus; for the letter did not have the customary address, “The father, to the son, health and happiness,” but instead, “King Ptolemy, to King Pyrrhus, health and happiness.” Pyrrhus reviled Lysimachus for the fraud, but nevertheless made the desired peace, and they all met to ratify it with sacrificial oaths. 5 However, after a bull, a boar, and a ram had been brought up for sacrifice, of its own accord the ram fell down dead. The rest of the spectators were moved to laughter, but Theodotus the seer prevented Pyrrhus from taking the oath by declaring that Heaven thus betokened in advance the death of one of the three kings. In this way, then, Pyrrhus was led to renounce the peace.
[Pyrrh. 7.1] 7 1 Thus Alexander’s affairs were already settled with the help of Pyrrhus, but nevertheless Demetrius came to him; and as soon as he arrived it was plain that he was not wanted, and he inspired only fear; and after they had been together a few days their mutual distrust led them to plot against each other. But Demetrius, taking advantage of his opportunity, got beforehand with the young prince and slew him, and was proclaimed king of Macedonia. 2 Now, even before this there had been differences between him and Pyrrhus, and Pyrrhus had overrun Thessaly; and greed for power, the natural disease of dynasties, made them formidable and suspicious neighbours, and all the more after the death of Deïdameia. And now that both of them had occupied part of Macedonia, they came into collision, and their quarrel was furnished with stronger grounds. 3 Demetrius therefore made an expedition against the Aetolians and conquered them, and then, leaving Pantauchus there with a large force, he himself moved against Pyrrhus, and Pyrrhus, when he heard of it, against him. Owing to a mistake in the way, however, they passed by one another, and Demetrius, throwing his forces into Epeirus, plundered the country, while Pyrrhus, encountering Pantauchus, joined battle with him. 4 There was a sharp and terrible conflict between the soldiers who engaged, and especially also between the leaders. For Pantauchus, who was confessedly the best of the generals of Demetrius for bravery, dexterity, and vigour of body, and had both courage and a lofty spirit, challenged Pyrrhus to a hand-to hand combat; and Pyrrhus, who yielded to none of the kings in daring and prowess, and wished that the glory of Achilles should belong to him by right of valour rather than of blood alone, advanced through the foremost fighters to confront Pantauchus. 5 At first they hurled their spears, then, coming to close quarters, they plied their swords with might and skill. Pyrrhus got one wound, but gave Pantauchus two, one in the thigh, and one along the neck, and put him to flight and overthrew him; he did not kill him, however, for his friends haled him away. Then the Epeirots, exalted by the victory of their king and admiring his valour, overwhelmed and cut to pieces the phalanx of the Macedonians, pursued them as they fled, slew many of them, and took five thousand of them alive.
[Pyrrh. 8.1] 8 1 This conflict did not fill the Macedonians with wrath and hate towards Pyrrhus for their losses, rather it led those who beheld his exploits and engaged him in the battle to esteem him highly and admire his bravery and talk much about him. For they likened his aspect and his swiftness and all his motions to those of the great Alexander, and thought they saw in him shadows, as it were, and intimations of that leader’s impetuosity and might in conflicts. The other kings, they said, represented Alexander with their purple robes, their body-guards, the inclination of their necks, and their louder tones in conversation; but Pyrrhus, and Pyrrhus alone, in arms and action.
[Pyrrh. 8.2] 2 Of his knowledge and ability in the field of military tactics and leadership one may get proofs from the writings on these subjects which he left. It is said also that Antigonus, when asked who was the best general, “Pyrrhus, if he lives to be old.” This verdict of Antigonus applied only to his contemporaries. Hannibal, however, declared that the foremost of all generals in experience and ability was Pyrrhus, that Scipio was second, and he himself third, as I have written in my life of Scipio. 3 And in a word, Pyrrhus would seem to have been always and continually studying and meditating upon this one subject, regarding it as the most kingly branch of learning; the rest he regarded as mere accomplishments and held them in no esteem. For instance, we are told that when he was asked at a drinking-party whether he thought Python or Caphisias the better flute-player, he replied that Polysperchona was a good general, implying that it became a king to investigate and understand such matters only.
[Pyrrh. 8.4] 4 He was also kind towards his familiar friends, and mild in temper, but eager and impetuous in returning favours. At any rate, when Aeropus died, he was distressed beyond measure, declaring that Aeropus had indeed only suffered what was common to humanity, but that he blamed and reviled himself because he had always delayed and moved slowly in the matter and so had not returned his friend’s favour. For the debts due to one’s creditors can be paid back to their heirs; but if the favours received from friends are not returned while those friends can be sensible of the act, it is an affliction to a just and good man. 5 Again, in Ambracia there was a fellow who denounced and reviled him, and people thought that Pyrrhus ought to banish him. “Let him remain here,” said Pyrrhus, “and speak ill of us among a few, rather than carry his slanders round to all mankind.” And again, some young fellows indulged in abuse of him over their cups, and were brought to task for it. Pyrrhus asked them if they had said such things, and when one of them replied, “We did, O King; and we should have said still more than this if we had had more wine.” Pyrrhus laughed and dismissed them.
[Pyrrh. 9.1] 9 1 In order to enlarge his interests and power he married several wives after the death of Antigone. He took to wife, namely, a daughter of Autoleon, king of the Paeonians; Bircenna, the daughter of Bardyllis the Illyrian; and Lanassa, the daughter of Agathocles of Syracuse, who brought him as her dowry the city of Corcyra, which had been captured by Agathocles. By Antigone he had a son Ptolemy, Alexander by Lanassa, and Helenus, his youngest son, by Bircenna. 2 He brought them all up to be brave in arms and fiery, and he whetted them for this from their very birth. It is said, for instance, that when he was asked by one of them, who was still a boy, to whom he should leave his kingdom, he replied: “To that one of you who keeps his sword the sharpest.” This, however, meant nothing less than the famous curse of Oedipus in the tragedy; that “with whetted sword,” and not by lot, the brothers should “divide the house.” So savage and ferocious is the nature of rapacity.
[Pyrrh. 10.1] 10 1 After this battle Pyrrhus returned to his home rejoicing in the splendour which his fame and lofty spirit had brought him; and when he was given the surname of “Eagle” by the Epeirots, “Through you,” he said, “am I an eagle; why, pray, should I not be? It is by your arms that I am borne aloft as by swift pinions.” But a little while later, learning that Demetrius was dangerously sick, he suddenly threw an army into Macedonia, intending merely to overrun and plunder some parts of it. 2 Yet he came within a little of mastering the whole country and getting the kingdom without a battle; for he marched on as far as Edessa without opposition from anyone, and many actually joined his forces and shared his expedition. And now Demetrius himself was roused by the peril to act beyond his strength, while his friends and commanders in a short time collected many soldiers and set out with zeal and vigour against Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus, however, had come more for plunder than anything else, and would not stand his ground, but fled, losing a part of his army on the march, under the attacks of the Macedonians.
[Pyrrh. 10.3] 3 However, because Demetrius had easily and speedily driven Pyrrhus out of the country, he did not leave him to his own devices, but now that he had determined to undertake a great enterprise and to recover his father’s realm with a hundred thousand soldiers and five hundred ships, he did not wish to have collisions with Pyrrhus, nor yet to leave behind in him an enterprising and troublesome neighbour for the Macedonians. He wished, rather, since he had no time to wage war against Pyrrhus, to come to terms and make peace with him, and then turn his arms against the other kings. 4 But after an agreement had been made between them for these reasons, the purpose of Demetrius became apparent, as well as the magnitude of his preparations, and the kings, in alarm, kept sending to Pyrrhus messengers and letters, expressing their amazement that he should let slip his own opportunity for making war and wait for Demetrius to seize his; and that when he was able to drive Demetrius out of Macedonia, since he was now much occupied and disturbed, he should await the time when his adversary, at his leisure and after he had become great, could wage a decisive struggle with him for the sanctuaries and tombs of the Molossian land, an adversary who had just robbed him of Corcyra, and his wife besides. 5 For Lanassa, who found fault with Pyrrhus for being more devoted to his barbarian wives than to her, had retired to Corcyra, whither, since she desired a royal marriage, she invited Demetrius, understanding that he, of all the kings, was most readily disposed to marry wives. So Demetrius sailed thither, married Lanassa, and left a garrison in the city.
[Pyrrh. 11.1] 11 Such letters the kings kept sending to Pyrrhus, and at the same time on their own part they assailed Demetrius while he was still waiting to complete his preparations. Ptolemy sailed up with a great fleet and tried to bring the Greek cities to revolt, while Lysimachus invaded upper Macedonia from Thrace and ravaged the country. So Pyrrhus, taking the field at the same time with these, marched against Beroea, expecting, as proved to be the case, that Demetrius would go to confront Lysimachus, and thus leave the lower country unprotected. 2 That night Pyrrhus dreamed that he was called by Alexander the Great, and that when he answered the call he found the king lying on a couch, but met with kindly speech and friendly treatment from him, and received a promise of his ready aid and help. “And how, O King,” Pyrrhus ventured to ask, “when thou art sick, canst thou give me aid and help?” “My name itself will give it,” said the king, and mounting a Nisaean horse he led the way.
[Pyrrh. 11.3] 3 This vision gave Pyrrhus great assurance, and leading his army with all speed through the intervening districts he took possession of Beroea; then, stationing the greater part of his forces there, he proceeded to subdue the rest of the country through his generals. When Demetrius heard of this, and became aware of a pernicious uproar in his camp on the part of the Macedonians, he was afraid to led them farther on, lest on coming into the neighbourhood of a Macedonian king of great renown they should go over to him. 4 Therefore he turned back and led them against Pyrrhus, with the idea that he was a foreigner and hated by the Macedonians. But after he had pitched his camp over against Pyrrhus, many Beroeans came thither with loud praises of Pyrrhus; they said he was invincible in arms and a brilliant hero, and treated his captives with mildness and humanity. There were some also whom Pyrrhus himself sent into the camp; they pretended to be Macedonians, and said that now was the favourable time to rid themselves of Demetrius and his severity, by going over to Pyrrhus, a man who was gracious to the common folk and fond of his soldiers. 5 In consequence of this, the greater part of the army was all excitement, and went about looking for Pyrrhus; for it chanced that he had taken off his helmet, and he was not recognised until he bethought himself and put it on again, when its towering crest and its goat’s horns made him known to all. Some of the Macedonians therefore ran to him and asked him for his watchword, and others put garlands of oaken boughs around their heads because they saw the soldiers about him garlanded. 6 And presently even to Demetrius himself certain persons ventured to say that if he quietly withdrew and renounced his undertakings men would think that he had taken wise counsel. He saw that this advice tallied with the agitation in the camp, and was frightened, and secretly stole away, after putting on a broad-brimmed hat and a simple soldier’s cloak. So Pyrrhus came up, took the camp without a blow, and was proclaimed king of Macedonia.
[Pyrrh. 12.1] 12 1 But now Lysimachus made his appearance, claimed that the overthrow of Demetrius had been the joint work of both, and demanded a division of the kingdom. So Pyrrhus, who did not yet feel entire confidence in the Macedonians, but was still doubtful about them, accepted the proposition of Lysimachus, and they divided the cities and the territory with one another. 2 This availed for the present, and prevented war between them, but shortly afterward they perceived that the distribution which they had made did not put an end to their enmity, but gave occasion for complaints and quarrels. For how men to whose rapacity neither sea nor mountain nor uninhabitable desert sets a limit, men to whose inordinate desires the boundaries which separate Europe and Asia put no stop, can remain content with what they have and do one another no wrong when they are in close touch, 3 it is impossible to say. Nay, they are perpetually at war, because plots and jealousies are parts of their natures, and they treat the two words, war and peace, like current coins, using whichever happens to be for their advantage, regardless of justice; for surely they are better men when they wage war openly than when they give the names of justice and friendship to the times of inactivity and leisure which interrupt their work of injustice. 4 And Pyrrhus made this plain; for, setting himself to hinder the growing power of Demetrius, and trying to prevent its recovery, so to speak, from a serious illness, he went to the help of the Greeks and entered Athens. Here he went up to the acropolis and sacrificed to the goddess, then came down again on the same day, and told the people he was well pleased with the confidence and goodwill which they had shown him, but that in future, if they were wise, they would not admit any one of the kings into their city nor open their gates to him. 5 After this, he actually made peace with Demetrius, but in a little while, when Demetrius had set out for Asia, he once more took the advice of Lysimachus and tried to bring Thessaly to revolt, besides waging war upon the garrisons of Demetrius in the Greek cities. For he found that the Macedonians were better disposed when they were on a campaign than when they were unoccupied, and he himself was by nature entirely averse to keeping quiet.
[Pyrrh. 12.6] But at last, after Demetrius had been wholly overthrown in Syria, Lysimachus, who now felt himself secure, and had nothing on his hands, at once set out against Pyrrhus. 6 Pyrrhus was in camp at Edessa, where Lysimachus fell upon his provision trains and mastered them, thus bringing him to straits; then, by letters and conferences he corrupted the leading Macedonians, upbraiding them because they had chosen as lord and master a man who was a foreigner, whose ancestors had always been subject to Macedonia, and were thrusting the friends and familiars of Alexander out of the country. 7 After many had thus been won over, Pyrrhus took alarm and departed with his Epeirots and allied forces, thus losing Macedonia precisely as he got it. Whence we see that kings have no reason to find fault with popular bodies for changing sides as suits their interests; for in doing this they are but imitating the kings themselves, who are their teachers in unfaithfulness and treachery, and think him most advantaged who least observes justice.
[Pyrrh. 13.1] 13 1 At this time, then, when Pyrrhus had been driven back into Epeirus and had given up Macedonia, Fortune put it into his power to enjoy what he had without molestation, to live in peace, and to reign over his own people. But he thought it tedious to the point of nausea if he were not inflicting mischief on others or suffering it at others’ hands, and like Achilles could not endure idleness,
[Pyrrh. 13.1b] “but ate his heart away
Remaining there, and pined for war-cry and battle.”
[Pyrrh. 13.2] Filled with such desires, then, he found ground for fresh undertakings in the following circumstances. 2 The Romans were at war with the people of Tarentum, who, being able neither to carry on the war, nor yet, owing to the rashness and villainy of their popular leaders, to put an end to it, wished to make Pyrrhus their leader and summon him to the war, believing him to be most at leisure of all the kings, and a most formidable general. Of the elderly and sensible citizens, some who were directly opposed to this plan were overborne by the clamour and violence of the war party, and others, seeing this, absented themselves from the assembly. 3 But there was a certain worthy man, Meton by name, who, when the day on which the decree was to be ratified was at hand and the people were taking their seats in the assembly, took a withered garland and a torch, after the way of revellers, and came dancing in behind a flute-girl who led the way for him. Then, as will happen in a throng of free people not given to decorum, some clapped their hands at sight of him, and others laughed, but none tried to stop him; nay, they bade the woman play on her flute and called upon Meton to come forward and give them a song; and it was expected that he would do so. 4 But when silence had been made, he said: “Men of Tarentum, ye do well not to frown upon those who wish to sport and revel, while they can. And if ye are wise, ye will also get some enjoyment still out of your freedom, assured that ye will have other business and a different life and diet when Pyrrhus has come into the city.” These words brought conviction to most of the Tarentines, and a murmur of applause ran through the assembly. 5 But those who were afraid that if peace were made they would be given up to the Romans, reviled the people for tamely submitting to such shameless treatment from a drunken reveller, and banding together they cast Meton out.
[Pyrrh. 13.6] And so the decree was ratified, and the people sent ambassadors to Pyrrhus, not only from their own number, but also from the Italian Greeks. These brought gifts to Pyrrhus, and told him they wanted a leader of reputation and prudence, 6 and that he would find there large forces gathered from Lucania, Messapia, Samnium, and Tarentum, amounting to twenty thousand horse and three hundred and fifty thousand foot all told. This not only exalted Pyrrhus himself, but also inspired the Epeirots with eagerness to undertake the expedition.
[Pyrrh. 14.1] 14 1 Now, there was a certain Cineas, a man of Thessaly, with a reputation for great wisdom, who had been a pupil of Demosthenes the orator, and was quite the only public speaker of his day who was thought to remind his hearers, as a statue might, of that great orator’s power and ability. Associating himself with Pyrrhus, and sent by him as ambassador to the cities, he confirmed the saying of Euripides, to wit, “all can be won by eloquence
[Pyrrh. 14.1b] That even the sword of warring enemies might gain.”
[Pyrrh. 14.2] 2 At any rate, Pyrrhus used to say that more cities had been won for him by the eloquence of Cineas than by his own arms; and he continued to hold Cineas in especial honour and to demand his services. It was this Cineas, then, who, seeing that Pyrrhus was eagerly preparing an expedition at this time to Italy, and finding him at leisure for the moment, drew him into the following discourse. “The Romans, O Pyrrhus, are said to be good fighters, and to be rulers of many warlike nations; if, then, Heaven should permit us to conquer these men, how should we use our victory?” 3 And Pyrrhus said: “Thy question, O Cineas, really needs no answer; the Romans once conquered, there is neither barbarian nor Greek city there which is a match for us, but we shall at once possess all Italy, the great size and richness and importance of which no man should know better than thyself.” After a little pause, then, Cineas said: “And after taking Italy, O King, what are we to do?” 4 And Pyrrhus, not yet perceiving his intention, replied: “Sicily is near, and holds out her hands to us, an island abounding in wealth and men, and very easy to capture, for all is faction there, her cities have no government, and demagogues are rampant now that Agathocles is gone.” “What thou sayest,” replied Cineas, “is probably true; but will our expedition stop with the taking of Sicily?” 5 “Heaven grant us,” said Pyrrhus, “victory and success so far; and we will make these contests but the preliminaries of great enterprises. For who could keep his hands off Libya, or Carthage, when that city got within his reach, a city which Agathocles, slipping stealthily out of Syracuse and crossing the sea with a few ships, narrowly missed taking? And when we have become masters here, no one of the enemies who now treat us with scorn will offer further resistance; there is no need of saying that.” 6 “None whatever,” said Cineas, “for it is plain that with so great a power we shall be able to recover Macedonia and rule Greece securely. But when we have got everything subject to us, what are we going to do?” Then Pyrrhus smiled upon him and said: “We shall be much at ease, and we’ll drink bumpers, my good man, every day, and we’ll gladden one another’s hearts with confidential talks.” 7 And now that Cineas had brought Pyrrhus to this point in the argument, he said: “Then what stands in our way now if we want to drink bumpers and while away the time with one another? Surely this privilege is ours already, and we have at hand, without taking any trouble, those things to which we hope to attain by bloodshed and great toils and perils, after doing much harm to others and suffering much ourselves.”
[Pyrrh. 14.8] 8 By this reasoning of Cineas Pyrrhus was more troubled than he was converted; he saw plainly what great happiness he was leaving behind him, but was unable to renounce his hopes of what he eagerly desired.
[Pyrrh. 15.1] 15 1 First, then, he sent Cineas to Tarentum with three thousand soldiers; next, after numerous cavalry-transports, decked vessels, and passage-boats of every sort had been brought over from Tarentum, he put on board of them twenty elephants and three thousand horse, twenty thousand foot, two thousand archers, and five hundred slingers. When all was ready, he put out and set sail; but when he was half way across the Ionian sea he was swept away by a north wind that burst forth out of all season. 2 In spite of its violence he himself, through the bravery and ardour of his seamen and captains, held out and made the land, though with great toil and danger; but the rest of the fleet was thrown into confusion and the ships were scattered. Some of them missed Italy and were driven off into the Libyan and Sicilian sea; others, unable to round the Iapygian promontory, were overtaken by night, and a heavy and violent sea, which drove them upon harbourless and uncertain shores, and destroyed them all except the royal galley. 3 She, as long as the waves drove upon her side, held her own, and was saved by her great size and strength from the blows of the water; but soon the wind veered round and met her from the shore, and the ship was in danger of being crushed by the heavy surges if she stood prow on against them. However, to allow her again to be tossed about by an angry open sea and by blasts of wind that came from all directions, was thought to be more fearful than their present straits. Pyrrhus therefore sprang up and threw himself into the sea, 4 and his friends and bodyguards were at once emulously eager to help him. But night and the billows with their heavy crashing and violent recoil made assistance difficult, so that it was not until day had already come and the wind was dying away that he succeeded in gaining the shore, in body altogether powerless, but with boldness and strength of spirit still making head against this distress. 5 The Messapians, among whom he had been cast forth, ran together with eager offers to assist as well as they could, and at the same time some of his ships that had escaped the storm came up; in these there were but a few horsemen all told, less than two thousand footmen, and two elephants.
[Pyrrh. 16.1] 16 1 With these Pyrrhus set out for Tarentum, where Cineas, on learning of his approach, led out his soldiers to meet him. Entering the city, he did nothing that was against the wishes of the Tarentines, nor did he put any compulsion upon them, until his ships came back in safety from the sea and the greater part of his forces were assembled. 2 Then, however, seeing that the multitude were incapable, unless under strong constraint, of either saving themselves or saving others, but were inclined to let him do their fighting for them while they remained at home in the enjoyment of their baths and social festivities, he closed up the gymnasia and the public walks, where, as they strolled about, they fought out their country’s battles in talk; he also put a stop to the drinking-bouts, revels, and festivals, as unseasonable, called the men to arms, and was stern and inexorable in his enrolment of them for military service. Many therefore left the city, since they were not accustomed to being under orders, and called it servitude not to live as they pleased.
[Pyrrh. 16.3] 3 And now word was brought to Pyrrhus that Laevinus the Roman consul was coming against him with a large army and plundering Lucania as he came. Pyrrhus had not yet been joined by his allies, but thinking it an intolerable thing to hold back and suffer his enemies to advance any nearer, he took the field with his forces, having first sent a herald to the Romans with the enquiry whether it was their pleasure, before waging war, to receive satisfaction from the Italian Greeks, employing him as arbiter and mediator. 4 But Laevinus made answer that the Romans neither chose Pyrrhus as a mediator nor feared him as a foe. Pyrrhus therefore went forward and pitched his camp in the plain between the cities of Pandosia and Heracleia. When he learned that the Romans were near and lay encamped on the further side of the river Siris, he rode up to the river to get a view of them; and when he had observed their discipline, the appointment of their watches, their order, and the general arrangement of their camp, he was amazed, 5 and said to the friend that was nearest him: “The discipline of these Barbarians is not barbarous; but the result will show us what it amounts to.” He was now less confident of the issue, and determined to wait for his allies; but he stationed a guard on the bank of the river to check the Romans if, in the meantime, they should attempt to cross it. 6 The Romans, however, anxious to anticipate the coming of the forces which Pyrrhus had decided to await, attempted the passage, their infantry crossing the river by a ford, and their cavalry dashing through the water at many points, so that the Greeks on guard, fearing that they would be surrounded, withdrew. When Pyrrhus saw this, he was greatly disturbed, and charging his infantry officers to form in line of battle at once and stand under arms, he himself rode out with his three thousand horsemen, hoping to come upon the Romans while they were still crossing, and to find them scattered and in disorder. 7 But when he saw a multitude of shields gleaming on the bank of the river and the cavalry advancing upon him in good order, he formed his men in close array and led them to the attack. He was conspicuous at once for the beauty and splendour of his richly ornamented armour, and showed by his deeds that his valour did not belie his fame; and this most of all because, while actively participating in the fight and vigorously repelling his assailants, he did not become confused in his calculations nor lose his presence of mind, 8 but directed the battle as if he were surveying it from a distance, darting hither and thither himself and bringing aid to those whom he thought to be overwhelmed.
[Pyrrh. 16.9] Here Leonnatus the Macedonian, observing that an Italian was intent upon Pyrrhus, and was riding out against him and following him in every movement from place to place, said: “Seest thou, O King, that Barbarian yonder, riding the black horse with white feet? He looks like a man who has some great and terrible design in mind. 9 For he keeps his eyes fixed upon thee, and is intent to reach thee with all his might and main, and pays no heed to anybody else. So be on thy guard against the man.” To him Pyrrhus made reply: “What is fated, O Leonnatus, it is impossible to escape; but with impunity neither he nor any other Italian shall come to close quarters with me.” While they were still conversing thus, the Italian levelled his spear, wheeled his horse, and charged upon Pyrrhus. 10 Then at the same instant the Barbarian’s spear smote the king’s horse, and his own horse was smitten by the spear of Leonnatus. Both horses fell, but while Pyrrhus was seized and rescued by his friends, the Italian, fighting to the last, was killed. He was a Frentanian, by race, captain of a troop of horse, Oplax by name.
[Pyrrh. 17.1] 17 1 This taught Pyrrhus to be more on his guard; and seeing that his cavalry were giving way, he called up his phalanx and put it in array, while he himself, after giving his cloak and armour to one of his companions, Megacles, and hiding himself after a fashion behind his men, charged with them upon the Romans. But they received and engaged him, and for a long time the issue of the battle remained undecided; it is said that there were seven turns of fortune, as each side either fled back or pursued. 2 And indeed the exchange of armour which the king had made, although it was opportune for the safety of his person, came near overthrowing his cause and losing him the victory. For many of the enemy assailed Megacles and the foremost of them, Dexoüs by name, smote him and laid him low, and then, snatching away his helmet and cloak, rode up to Laevinus, displaying them, and shouting as he did so that he had killed Pyrrhus. 3 Accordingly, as the spoils were carried along the ranks and displayed, there was joy and shouting among the Romans, and among the Greeks consternation and dejection, until Pyrrhus, learning what was the matter, rode along his line with his face bare, stretching out his hand to the combatants and giving them to know him by his voice. At last, when the Romans were more than ever crowded back by the elephants, and their horses, before they got near the animals, were terrified and ran away with their riders, Pyrrhus brought his Thessalian cavalry upon them while they were in confusion and routed them with great slaughter.
[Pyrrh. 17.4] 4 Dionysius states that nearly fifteen thousand of the Romans fell, but Hieronymus says only seven thousand; on the side of Pyrrhus, thirteen thousand fell, according to Dionysius, but according to Hieronymus less than four thousand. These, however, were his best troops; and besides, Pyrrhus lost the friends and generals whom he always used and trusted most. 5 However, he took the camp of the Romans after they had abandoned it, and won over to his side some of their allied cities; he also wasted much territory, and advanced until he was within three hundred furlongs’ distance from Rome. And now, after the battle, there came to him many of the Lucanians and Samnites. These he censured for being late, but it was clear that he was pleased and proud because with his own troops and the Tarentines alone he had conquered the great force of the Romans.
[Pyrrh. 18.1] 18 1 The Romans did not depose Laevinus from his consular office; and yet we are told that Caius Fabricius declared that it was not the Epeirots who had conquered the Romans, but Pyrrhus who had conquered Laevinus, Fabricius being of the opinion that the Roman defeat was not due to their army, but to its general; but they lost no time in filing up their depleted legions and raising others, used fearless and vehement language about the war, and thus filled Pyrrhus with consternation. 2 He decided, therefore, to send to them first and find out whether they were disposed to come to terms, for he regarded the capture of their city and their complete conquest as a large task and one that was beyond his present force, whereas a friendly settlement with them after a victory would greatly enhance his reputation. Accordingly, Cineas was sent to Rome, where he had conferences with the men in authority, and sent their wives and children gifts in the name of the king. 3 No one, however, would accept the gifts, but all replied, men and women alike, that if a peace were publicly concluded they also, on their part, would show goodwill and kindness to the king. Moreover, though Cineas made many and alluring proposals to the senate, not one of them was received there with alacrity or pleasure, although Pyrrhus offered to restore without a ransom their men who had been captured in battle, and promised to assist them in the subjugation of Italy, and in return for these favours asked only 5 friendship for himself, immunity for the Tarentines, and nothing else. Nevertheless, most of the senators were plainly inclined towards peace, since they had been defeated in one great battle, and expected another with a larger army, now that the Italian Greeks had joined Pyrrhus. At this point Appius Claudius, a man of distinction, but one whom old age and blindness had forced to give up all public activities, now that the message from the king had come and a report was rife that the senate was going to vote for the proposed cessation of hostilities, could not restrain himself, but ordered his attendants to take him up and had himself carried on a litter through the forum to the senate-house. 6 When he had reached the door, his sons and sons-in law took him up in their arms and brought him inside, and the senators, out of regard for the man, kept respectful silence.
[Pyrrh. 19.1] 19 1 Then Appius raised himself up where he was and said: “Up to this time, O Romans, I have regarded the misfortune to my eyes as an affliction, but it now distresses me that I am not deaf as well as blind, that I might not hear the shameful resolutions and decrees of years which bring low the glory of Rome. For what becomes of the words that ye are ever reiterating to all the world, namely, that if the great Alexander of renown had come to Italy and had come into conflict with us, when we were young men, and with our fathers, when they were in their prime, he would not now be celebrated as invincible, but would either have fled, or, perhaps, have fallen there, and so have left Rome more glorious still? 2 Surely ye are proving that this was boasting and empty bluster, since ye are afraid of Chaonians and Molossians, who were ever the prey of the Macedonians, and ye tremble before Pyrrhus, who has ever been a minister and servitor to one at least of Alexander’s bodyguards, and now comes wandering over Italy, not so much to help the Greeks who dwell here, as to escape his enemies at home, promising to win for us the supremacy here with that army which could not avail to preserve for him a small portion of Macedonia. 3 Do not suppose that ye will rid yourself of this fellow by making him your friend; nay, ye will bring against you others, and they will despise you as men whom anybody can easily subdue, if Pyrrhus goes away without having been punished for his insults, but actually rewarded for them in having enabled Tarentines and Samnites to mock at Romans.”
[Pyrrh. 19.4] After Appius had thus spoken, his hearers were seized with eagerness to prosecute the war, and Cineas was sent back with the reply that Pyrrhus must first depart out of Italy, 4 and then, if he wished, the Romans would talk about friendship and alliance; but as long as he was there in arms, they would fight him with all their might, even though he should rout in battle ten thousand men like Laevinus. It is said, too, that Cineas, while he was on this mission, made it his earnest business at the same time to observe the life and manners of the Romans, and to understand the excellences of their form of government; 5 he also conversed with their best men, and had many things to tell Pyrrhus, among which was the declaration that the senate impressed him as a council of many kings, and that, as for the people, he was afraid it might prove to be a Lernaean hydra for them to fight against, since the consul already had twice as many soldiers collected as those who faced their enemies before, and there were many times as many Romans still who were capable of bearing arms.
[Pyrrh. 20.1] 20 1 After this, an embassy came from the Romans to treat about the prisoners that had been taken. The embassy was headed by Caius Fabricius, who, as Cineas reported, was held in highest esteem at Rome as an honourable man and good soldier, but was inordinately poor. To this man, then, Pyrrhus privately showed kindness and tried to induce him to accept gold, not for any base purpose, indeed, but calling it a mark of friendship and hospitality. 2 But Fabricius rejected the gold, and for that day Pyrrhus let him alone; on the following day, however, wishing to frighten a man who had not yet seen an elephant, he ordered the largest of these animals to be stationed behind a hanging in front of which they stood conversing together. This was done; and at a given signal the hanging was drawn aside, and the animal raised his trunk, held it over the head of Fabricius, and emitted a harsh and frightful cry. 3 But Fabricius calmly turned and said with a smile to Pyrrhus: “Your gold made no impression on me yesterday, neither does your beast to day.” Again, at supper, where all sorts of topics were discussed, and particularly that of Greece and her philosophers, Cineas happened somehow to mention Epicurus, and set forth the doctrines of that school concerning the gods, civil government, and the highest good, explaining that they made pleasure the highest good, but would have nothing to do with civil government on the ground that it was injurious and the ruin of felicity, and that they removed the Deity as far as possible from feelings of kindness or anger or concern for us, into a life that knew no care and was filled with ease and comfort. 4 But before Cineas was done, Fabricius cried out and said: “O Hercules, may Pyrrhus and the Samnites cherish these doctrines, as long as they are at war with us.”
[Pyrrh. 20.5] Thus Pyrrhus was led to admire the high spirit and character of the man, and was all the more eager to have friendship with this city instead of waging war against it; he even privately invited him, in case he brought about the settlement, to follow his fortunes and share his life as the first and foremost of all his companions and generals. But Fabricius, as we are told, said quietly to him: “Nay, O King, this would not be to thy advantage; for the very men who now admire and honour thee, if they should become acquainted with me, would prefer to have me as their king rather than thee.” 5 Such a man was Fabricius. And Pyrrhus did not receive the speech with anger or like a tyrant, but actually reported to his friends the magnanimity of Fabricius, and entrusted his prisoners of war to him alone, on condition that, in case the senate should not vote for the peace, they should be sent back again to him, though they might first greet their relatives and celebrate the festival of Saturn. And they were so sent back after the festival, the senate having voted a penalty of death for any that stayed behind.
[Pyrrh. 21.1] 21 1 After this, and when Fabricius had assumed the consulship, a man came into his camp with a letter for him. The letter had been written by the physician of Pyrrhus, who promised that he would take the king off by poison, provided that the Romans would agree to reward him for putting an end to the war without further hazard on their part. But Fabricius, who was indignant at the iniquity of the man, and had disposed his colleague to feel likewise, sent a letter to Pyrrhus with all speed urging him to be on his guard against the plot. 2 The letter ran as follows: “Caius Fabricius and Quintus Aemilius, consuls of Rome, to King Pyrrhus, health and happiness. It would appear that thou art a good judge neither of friends nor of enemies. Thou wilt see, when thou hast read the letter which we send, that the men with whom thou art at war are honourable and just, but that those whom thou trustest are unjust and base. 3 And indeed we do not give thee this information out of regard for thee, but in order that thy ruin may not bring infamy upon us, and that men may not say of us that we brought the war to an end by treachery because we were unable to do so by valour.” When Pyrrhus had read this letter and got proof of the plot against his life, he punished the physician, and as a requital to Fabricius and the Romans made them a present of his prisoners of war, and once more sent Cineas to negotiate a peace for him. 4 But the Romans would not consent to receive the men for nothing, either as a favour from an enemy, or as a reward for not committing iniquity against him, and therefore released for Pyrrhus an equal number of Tarentines and Samnites whom they had taken; on the subject of friendship and peace, however, they declared they would allow nothing to be said until Pyrrhus had taken his arms and his army out of Italy and sailed back to Epeirus on the ships that brought him.
[Pyrrh. 21.5] 5 Consequently, Pyrrhus found himself obliged to fight another battle, and after recuperating his army he marched to the city of Asculum, where he engaged the Romans. Here, however, he was forced into regions where his cavalry could not operate, and upon a river with swift current and wooded banks, so that his elephants could not charge and engage the enemy’s phalanx. Therefore, after many had been wounded and slain, for the time being the struggle was ended by the coming of night. 6 But on the next day, designing to fight the battle on level ground, and to bring his elephants to bear upon the ranks of the enemy, Pyrrhus occupied betimes the unfavourable parts of the field with a detachment of his troops; then he put great numbers of slingers and led his forces to the attack in dense array and with a mighty impetus. So the Romans, having no opportunity for sidelong shifts and counter-movements, as on the previous day, were obliged to engage on level ground and front to front; and being anxious to repulse the enemy’s men-at arms before their elephants came up, they fought fiercely with their swords against the Macedonian spears, reckless of their lives and thinking only of wounding and slaying, while caring naught for what they suffered. 7 After a long time, however, as we are told, they began to be driven back at the point where Pyrrhus himself was pressing hard upon his opponents; but the greatest havoc was wrought by the furious strength of the elephants, since the valour of the Romans was of no avail in fighting them, but they felt that they must yield before them as before an onrushing billow or a crashing earthquake, and not stand their ground only to die in vain, or suffer all that is most grievous without doing any good at all.
[Pyrrh. 21.8] 8 After a short flight the Romans reached their camp, with a loss of six thousand men, according to Hieronymus, who also says that on the side of Pyrrhus, according to the king’s own commentaries, thirty-five hundred and five were killed. 9 Dionysius, however, makes no mention of two battles at Asculum, nor of an admitted defeat of the Romans, but says that the two armies fought once for all until sunset and then at last separated; Pyrrhus, he says, was wounded in the arm by a javelin, and also had his baggage plundered by the Daunians; and there fell, on the side of Pyrrhus and on that of the Romans, over fifteen thousand men.
[Pyrrh. 21.10] The two armies separated; and we are told that Pyrrhus said to one who was congratulating him on his victory, “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.” 10 For he had lost a great part of the forces with which he came, and all his friends and generals except a few; moreover, he had no others whom he could summon from home, and he saw that his allies in Italy were becoming indifferent, while the army of the Romans, as if from a fountain gushing forth indoors, was easily and speedily filled up again, and they did not lose courage in defeat, nay, their wrath gave them all the more vigour and determination for the war.
[Pyrrh. 22.1] 22 1 But while he was involved in such perplexities, new hopes once more inspired him, and projects which divided his purposes. For at one and the same time there came to him from Sicily men who offered to put into his hands the cities of Agrigentum, Syracuse, and Leontini, and begged him to help them to drive out the Carthaginians and rid the island of its tyrants; and from Greece, men with tidings that Ptolemy Ceraunus with his army had perished at the hands of the Gauls, and that now was the time of all times for him to be in Macedonia, where they wanted a king. 2 Pyrrhus rated Fortune soundly because occasions for two great undertakings had come to him at one time, and thinking that the presence of both meant the loss of one, he wavered in his calculations for a long time. Then Sicily appeared to offer opportunities for greater achievements, since Libya was felt to be near, and he turned in this direction, 3 and forthwith sent out Cineas to hold preliminary conferences with the cities, as was his wont, while he himself threw a garrison into Tarentum. The Tarentines were much displeased at this, and demanded that he either apply himself to the task for which he had come, namely to help them in their war with Rome, or else abandon their territory and leave them their city as he had found it. To this demand he made no very gracious reply, but ordering them to keep quiet and await his convenience, he sailed off.
[Pyrrh. 22.4] 4 On reaching Sicily, his hopes were at once realized securely; the cities readily gave themselves up to him, and wherever force and conflict were necessary nothing held out against him at first, but advancing with thirty thousand foot, twenty-five hundred horse, and two hundred ships, he put the Phoenicians to rout and subdued the territory under their control. Then he determined to storm the walls of Eryx, which was the strongest of their fortresses and had numerous defenders. 5 So when his army was ready, he put on his armour, went out to battle, and made a vow to Heracles that he would institute games and a sacrifice in his honour, if the god would render him in the sight of the Sicilian Greeks an antagonist worthy of his lineage and resources; then he ordered the trumpets to sound, scattered the Barbarians with his missiles, brought up his scaling-ladders, and was the first to mount the wall. 6 Many were the foes against whom he strove; some of them he pushed from the wall on either side and hurled them to the ground, but most he laid dead in heaps about him with the strokes of his sword. He himself suffered no harm, but was a terrible sight for his enemies to look upon, and proved that Homer was right and fully justified in saying that valour, alone of the virtues, often displays transports due to divine possession and frenzy. After the capture of the city, he sacrificed to the god in magnificent fashion and furnished spectacles of all sorts of contests.
[Pyrrh. 23.1] 23 1 The Barbarians about Messana, called Mamertines, were giving much annoyance to the Greeks, and had even laid some of them under contribution. They were numerous and warlike, and therefore had been given a name which, in the Latin tongue, signifies martial. Pyrrhus seized their collectors of tribute and put them to death, then conquered the people themselves in battle and destroyed many of their strongholds. 2 Moreover, when the Carthaginians were inclined to come to terms and were willing to pay him money and sent him ships in case friendly relations were established, he replied to them (his heart being set on greater things) that there could be no settlement or friendship between himself and them unless they abandoned all Sicily and made the Libyan Sea a boundary between themselves and the Greeks. 3 But now, lifted up by his good fortune and by the strength of his resources, and pursuing the hopes with which he had sailed from home in the beginning, he set his heart upon Libya first; and since many of the ships that he had were insufficiently manned, he began to collect oarsmen, not dealing with the cities in an acceptable or gentle manner, but in a lordly way, angrily putting compulsion and penalties upon them. He had not behaved in this way at the very beginning, but had even gone beyond others in trying to win men’s hearts by gracious intercourse with them, by trusting everybody, and by doing nobody any harm. But now he ceased to be a popular leader and became a tyrant, and added to his name for severity a name for ingratitude and faithlessness.
[Pyrrh. 23.4] 4 Nevertheless the Sicilians put up with these things as necessary, although they were exasperated; but then came his dealings with Thoenon and Sosistratus. These were leading men in Syracuse, and had been first to persuade Pyrrhus to come into Sicily. Moreover, after he had come, they immediately put their city into his hands and assisted him in most of what he had accomplished in Sicily. And yet he was willing neither to take them with him nor to leave them behind, and held them in suspicion. Sosistratus took the alarm and withdrew; 5 but Thoenon was accused by Pyrrhus of complicity with Sosistratus and put to death. With this, the situation of Pyrrhus was suddenly and entirely changed. A terrible hatred arose against him in the cities, some of which joined the Carthaginians, while others called in the Mamertines. And now, as he saw everywhere secessions and revolutionary designs and a strong faction opposed to him, he received letters from the Samnites and Tarentines, who had been excluded from all their territories, could with difficulty maintain the war even in their cities, and begged for his assistance. 6 This gave him a fair pretext for his sailing away, without its being called a flight or despair of his cause in the island; but in truth it was because he could not master Sicily, which was like a storm-tossed ship, but desired to get out of her, that he once more threw himself into Italy. And it is said that at the time of his departure looked back at the island and said to those about him: “My friends, what a wrestling ground for Carthaginians and Romans we are leaving behind us!” And this conjecture of his was soon afterwards confirmed.
[Pyrrh. 24.1] 24 1 But the Barbarians combined against him as he was setting sail. With the Carthaginians he fought a sea-fight in the strait and lost many of his ships, but escaped with the rest to Italy; and here the Mamertines, more than ten thousand of whom had crossed in advance of him, though they were afraid to match forces with him, yet threw his whole army into confusion by setting upon him and assailing him in difficult regions. Two of his elephants fell, and great numbers of his rearguard were slain. 2 Accordingly, riding up in person from the van, he sought to ward off the enemy, and ran great risks in contending with men who were trained to fight and were inspired with high courage. And when he was wounded on the head with a sword and withdrew a little from the combatants, the enemy were all the more elated. One of them ran forth far in advance of the rest, a man who was huge in body and resplendent in armour, and in a bold voice challenged Pyrrhus to come out, if he were still alive. 3 This angered Pyrrhus, and wheeling round in spite of his guards, he pushed his way through them — full of wrath, smeared with blood, and with a countenance terrible to look upon, and before the Barbarian could strike dealt him such a blow on his head with his sword that, what with the might of his arm and the excellent temper of his steel, it cleaved its way down through, so that at one instant the parts of the sundered body fell to either side. 4 This checked the Barbarians from any further advance, for they were amazed and confounded at Pyrrhus, and thought him some superior being. So he accomplished the rest of his march unmolested and came to Tarentum, bringing twenty thousand foot and three thousand horse. Then, adding to his force the best troops of the Tarentines, he forthwith led them against the Romans, who were encamped in the country of the Samnites.
[Pyrrh. 25.1] 25 1 But the power of the Samnites had been shattered, and their spirits were broken, in consequence of many defeats at the hands of the Romans. They also cherished considerable resentment against Pyrrhus because of his expedition to Sicily; hence not many of them came to join him. Pyrrhus, however, divided his army into two parts, sent one of them into Lucania to attack the other consul, that he might not come to the help of his colleague, 2 and led the other part himself against Manius Curius, who was safely encamped near the city of Beneventum and was awaiting assistance from Lucania; in part also it was because his soothsayers had dissuaded him with unfavourable omens and sacrifices that he kept quiet. Pyrrhus, accordingly, hastening to attack this consul before the other one came up, took his best men and his most warlike elephants and set out by night against his camp. 3 But since he took a long circuit through a densely wooded country, his lights did not hold out, and his soldiers lost their way and straggled. This caused delay, so that the night passed, and at daybreak he was in full view of the enemy as he advanced upon them from the heights, and caused much tumult and agitation among them.
[Pyrrh. 25.4] Manius, however, since the sacrifices were propitious and the crisis forced action upon him, led his forces out and attacked the foremost of the enemy, and after routing these, put their whole army to flight, so that many of them fell and some of their elephants were left behind and captured. 4 This victory brought Manius down into the plain to give battle; here, after an engagement in the open, he routed the enemy at some points, but at one was overwhelmed by the elephants and driven back upon his camp, where he was obliged to call upon the guards, who were standing on the parapets in great numbers, all in arms, and full of fresh vigour. 5 Down they came from their strong places, and hurling their javelins at the elephants compelled them to wheel about and run back through the ranks of their own men, thus causing disorder and confusion there. This gave the victory to the Romans, and at the same time the advantage also in the struggle for supremacy. For having acquired high courage and power and a reputation for invincibility from their valour in these struggles, they at once got control of Italy, and soon afterwards of Sicily.
[Pyrrh. 26.1] 26 1 Thus Pyrrhus was excluded from his hopes of Italy and Sicily, after squandering six years’ time in his wars there, and after being worsted in his undertakings, but he kept his brave spirit unconquered in the midst of his defeats; and men believed that in military experience, personal prowess, and daring, he was by far the first of the kings of his time, but that what he won by his exploits he lost by indulging in vain hopes, since through passionate desire for what he had not he always failed to establish securely what he had. 2 For this reason Antigonus used to liken him to a player with dice who makes many fine throws but does not understand how to use them when they are made.
[Pyrrh. 26.2] He returned to Epeirus with eight thousand foot and five hundred horse, and since he had no money he sought for a war by which he could maintain his army. Some Gauls joined him, and he thereupon made an incursion into Macedonia, where Antigonus the son of Demetrius was reigning, designing to strip and plunder the country. 3 But after he had taken a great number of cities and two thousand Macedonian soldiers had come over to him, he began to hope for greater things, and set out to attack Antigonus, and falling upon him in a narrow pass, threw his whole army into confusion. The Gauls who formed the rearguard of Antigonus, a numerous body, made a sturdy resistance; but after a fierce battle most these were cut to pieces, while those who had charge of the elephants were hemmed in and surrendered themselves and all their animals. 4 Then Pyrrhus, thus greatly strengthened, and consulting his good fortune rather than his judgment, advanced upon the phalanx of the Macedonians, which was filled with confusion and fear because of their previous defeat. For this reason they refrained from engagement or battle with him, whereupon Pyrrhus, stretching out his right hand and calling upon the generals and captains, brought over to him all the infantry of Antigonus in a body. 5 So Antigonus took to flight with a few of his horsemen, and occupied some of the seaboard cities; while Pyrrhus, thinking that amid so many successes his achievement against the Gauls conduced most to his glory, dedicated the most beautiful and splendid of his spoils in the temple of Athena Itonis, with the following elegiac inscription:
[Pyrrh. 26.2b] “These shields, now suspended here as a gift to Athena Itonis, Pyrrhus the Molossian took from valiant Gauls, after defeating the entire army of Antigonus; which is no great wonder; for now, as well as in olden time, the Aeacidae are brave spearmen.”
[Pyrrh. 26.6] 6 After the battle, however, he at once proceeded to occupy the cities. And after getting Aegae into his power, besides other severities exercised upon its inhabitants he left as a garrison in the city some of the Gauls who were making the campaign with him. But the Gauls, a race insatiable of wealth, set themselves to digging up the tombs of the kings who had been buried there; the treasure they plundered, the bones they insolently cast to the four winds. 7 This outrage Pyrrhus treated with lightness and indifference, as it was thought; he either postponed punishment because he had some business on hand, or remitted it altogether because he was afraid to chastise the Barbarians; and on this account he was censured by the Macedonians. Moreover, before his affairs were securely and firmly established, his thoughts swung again towards new hopes. He railed at Antigonus and called him a shameless man for not laying aside the purple and wearing a common robe; and when Cleonymus the Spartan came and invited him to come to Lacedaemon, he readily listened to him.
[Pyrrh. 26.8] 8 Now, Cleonymus was of royal lineage, but because he was thought to be of a violent and arbitrary temper, he enjoyed neither goodwill nor confidence at home, but Areus was king there. This was one general ground of complaint which he had against his fellow citizens, and it was of long standing. Besides, Cleonymus in his later years had married Chilonis the daughter of Leotychides, a beautiful woman of royal lineage; but she had fallen desperately in love with Acrotatus the son of Areus, a young man in the flower of his age, and thus rendered his marriage distressing to Cleonymus, since he loved her, at the same time disgraceful; for every Spartan was well aware that the husband was despised by his wife. 9 Thus his domestic vexations added themselves to his political disappointment, and in indignation and wrath he brought Pyrrhus against Sparta. Pyrrhus had twenty-five thousand foot and two thousand horse, besides twenty-four elephants, so that the magnitude of his preparations made it clear at once that he was not aiming to acquire Sparta for Cleonymus, but the Peloponnesus for himself. And yet his professions were all to the contrary, and particularly those which he made to the Lacedaemonian ambassadors themselves when they met him at Megalopolis. 10 He told them he had come to set free the cities which were subject to Antigonus, yes, and that he was going to send his younger sons to Sparta, if nothing prevented, to be brought up in the Lacedaemonian customs, that so they might presently have the advantage over all other princes. With these fictions he beguiled those who came to meet him on his march, but as soon as he reached Laconian territory he began to ravage and plunder it. 11 And when the Spartan ambassadors upbraided him for making war upon them without previous declaration, he said: “Yet we know that you Spartans also do not tell others beforehand what you are going to do.” Whereupon one of those who were present, Mandrocleidas by name, said to him in the broad Spartan dialect: “If thou art a god, we shall suffer no harm at thy hands; for we have done thee no wrong; but if a man, another will be found who is even stronger than thou.”
[Pyrrh. 27.1] 27 1 After this, he marched down against the city of Sparta. Cleonymus urged him to make the assault as soon as he arrived, but Pyrrhus was afraid, as we are told, that his soldiers would plunder the city if they fell upon it at night, and therefore restrained them, saying that they would accomplish just as much by day. For there were but few men in the city, and they were unprepared, owing to the suddenness of the peril; and Areus was not at home, but in Crete, whither he was bringing military aid for the Gortynians. And this, indeed, more than anything else, proved the salvation of the city, which its weakness and lack of defenders caused to be despised. 2 For Pyrrhus, thinking that no one would give him battle, bivouacked for the night, and the friends and Helot slaves of Cleonymus adorned and furnished his house in the expectation that Pyrrhus would take supper there with its owner.
[Pyrrh. 27.3] When night had come, the Lacedaemonians at first took counsel to send their women off to Crete, but the women were opposed to this; and Archidamia came with a sword in her hand to the senators and upbraided them in behalf of the women for thinking it meet that they should live after Sparta had perished. 3 Next, it was decided to run a trench parallel with the camp of the enemy, and at either end of it to set their waggons, sinking them to the wheel-hubs in the ground, in order that, thus firmly planted, they might impede the advance of the elephants. When they began to carry out this project, there came to them the women and maidens, some of them in their robes, with tunics girt close, and others in their tunics only, to help the elderly men in the work. 4 The men who were going to do the fighting the women ordered to keep quiet, and assuming their share of the task they completed with their own hands a third of the trench. The width of the trench was six cubits, its depth four, and its length eight hundred feet, according to Phylarchus; according to Hieronymus, less than this. 5 When day came and the enemy were putting themselves in motion, these women handed the young men their armour, put the trench in their charge, and told them to guard and defend it, assured that it was sweet to conquer before the eyes of their fatherland, and glorious to die in the arms of their mothers and wives, after a fall that was worthy of Sparta. As for Chilonis, she withdrew from the rest, and kept a halter about her neck, that she might not come into the power of Cleonymus if the city were taken.
[Pyrrh. 28.1] 28 1 Pyrrhus himself, then, with his men-at arms, tried to force his way directly against the many shields of the Spartans which confronted him, and over a trench which was impassable and afforded his soldiers no firm footing owing to the freshly turned earth. But his son Ptolemy, with two thousand Gauls and picked Chaonians, went round the trench and tried to force a passage where the waggons were. These, however, being so deeply planted in the earth and so close together, made not only his onset, but also the counter-efforts of the Lacedaemonians, a difficult matter. 2 The Gauls pulled the wheels up and were dragging the waggons down into the river; but the young Acrotatus saw the danger, and running through the city with three hundred men got round behind Ptolemy without being seen by him, owing to some depressions in the ground, and at last fell upon his rear ranks and forced them to turn about and fight with him. And now the Barbarians crowded one another into the trench and fell among the waggons, and finally, after great slaughter, were successfully driven back. 3 The elderly men and the host of women watched the brilliant exploit of Acrotatus. And when he went back again through the city to his allotted post, covered with blood and triumphant, elated with his victory, the Spartan women thought that he had become taller and most beautiful than ever, and envied Chilonis her lover. Moreover, some of the elderly men accompanied him on his way, crying: “Go, Acrotatus, and take to thyself Chilonis; only, see that thou begettest brave sons for Sparta.”
[Pyrrh. 28.4] 4 A fierce battle was also waged where Pyrrhus himself led, and many Spartans made a splendid fight, but particularly Phyllius, who surpassed all in the tenacity of his resistance and the numbers of the on-rushing enemy whom he slew; and when he perceived that his powers were failing from the multitude of the wounds he had received, he made way for one of his comrades in the line, and fell inside the ranks, that his dead body might not come into the hands of the enemy.
[Pyrrh. 29.1] 29 1 Night put an end to the battle; and Pyrrhus, as he slept, had the following vision. He dreamed that Sparta was smitten with thunderbolts from his hand and was all ablaze, and that he was filled with joy. His joy waked him from his sleep, and he commanded his officers to get the army ready for action, and narrated the dream to his friends, convinced that he was going to take the city by storm. 2 Most of them, then, were fully persuaded that he was right, but Lysimachus was not pleased with the vision; he said he was afraid lest, as places smitten by thunderbolts are kept free from the tread of men, the deity might be indicating in advance to Pyrrhus also that the city was not to be entered by him. But Pyrrhus declared that this was nonsense intended for the crowd, and great folly, and calling upon his hearers to take their arms in their hands and act upon the belief that
[Pyrrh. 29.1b] “One is the best of all omens, to fight in defence of Pyrrhus,”
rose up, and at day-break led forth his army.
[Pyrrh. 29.3] 3 But the Lacedaemonians defended themselves with an alacrity and bravery beyond their strength; the women, too, were at hand, proffering missiles, distributing food and drink to those who needed them, and taking up the wounded. The Macedonians tried to fill up the trench, collecting and throwing into it great quantities of materials, beneath which the arms and dead bodies were hidden away. 4 And when the Lacedaemonians tried to put a stop to this, Pyrrhus was seen forcing his way on horseback past the trench and the waggons into the city. But the men stationed at this point raised a shout, and there was a concourse and shrieking of the women, and just as Pyrrhus was riding through the waggons and attacking the men in front of him, his horse was wounded in the belly by a Cretan javelin and leaped to one side, and in his death agony threw Pyrrhus upon steep and slippery ground. 5 His companions were thrown into confusion around him, and the Spartans, running upon them and making good use of their missiles, drove them all off. After this, Pyrrhus brought the fighting to a stop at other points also, thinking that the Spartans would make some concessions, now that almost all of them were wounded and many had fallen. But now the good fortune of the city, either because she was satisfied with the bravery of its men, or because she would show forth the great power which she herself has in desperate crises, brought to their aid from Corinth, 6 when the hopes of the Spartans were already sorry, Ameinias the Phocian, one of the generals of Antigonus, with mercenary troops; and no sooner had he been received into the city than Areus the Spartan king came from Crete, bringing with him two thousand soldiers. So the women at once dispersed to their homes, since they no longer thought it meet to busy themselves with the work of war, and the men, after dismissing from their ranks those of unmilitary age whom necessity had brought there, arrayed themselves for battle.
[Pyrrh. 30.1] 30 1 Pyrrhus, too, was more than ever possessed by a fierce ambition to become master of the city, now that reinforcements had come to it; but since he could accomplish nothing, and met with fresh losses, he went away, and fell to ravaging the country, purposing to spend the winter there. But Fate was not to be escaped. For at Argos there was a feud between Aristeas and Aristippus; and since Aristippus was thought to enjoy the friendship of Antigonus, Aristeas hastened to invite Pyrrhus into Argos. 2 Pyrrhus was away entertaining one hope after another, and since he made one success but the starting point for a new one, while he was determined to make good each disaster by a fresh undertaking, he suffered neither defeat nor victory to put a limit to his troubling himself and troubling others. At once, therefore, he broke camp and set out for Argos. But Areus, by setting frequent ambushes and occupying the most difficult points on the march, kept cutting off the Gauls and Molossians who brought up the rear for Pyrrhus.
[Pyrrh. 30.3] 3 Now, it had been foretold to Pyrrhus by his seer, in consequence of sacrifices where no liver could be found, that he was to lose one of his kindred; but here, unhappily, owing to the agitation and tumult among his rear-guard, he forgot himself, and ordered his son Ptolemy with his comrades to go to the rescue, while he himself drew his army more quickly out of the narrow pass and led them forward. 4 A fierce battle raged where Ptolemy was, and while a band of picked Spartans under the command of Evalcus engaged the soldiers who were fighting in front of him, a man of stout arm and swift foot, Oryssus by name, of Aptera in Crete, ran up on one side of the prince as he was fighting spiritedly, smote him, and laid him low. 5 Upon Ptolemy’s fall and the rout of his company, the Spartans pursued, carrying all before them, and before they were aware of it had dashed out into the plain and were cut off by the infantry of Pyrrhus. Against this band of Spartans Pyrrhus, who had just heard of the death of his son and was in anguish, turned his Molossian horsemen. He himself charged at their head, and sated himself with Spartan blood. He had always shown himself invincible and terrible in arms, but now his daring and might surpassed all previous displays. 6 When he set his horse upon Evalcus, the Spartan stepped aside and had almost cut off with his sword the bridle-hand of Pyrrhus; as it was he hit the rein and severed it. Pyrrhus transfixed the Spartan with a thrust of his spear, and at the same instant fell off his horse, and fighting on foot, at once proceeded to slay all the picked band which was fighting over the body of Evalcus. This great additional loss to Sparta when the war was already at an end was due to the ambition of the commanders.
[Pyrrh. 31.1] 31 1 So Pyrrhus, after accomplishing as it were an expiation for his son and celebrating his obsequies with a brilliant contest, having also vented much of his grief in his fury against the enemy, led his army on towards Argos. And when he learned that Antigonus was already posted on the heights commanding the plain, he pitched his camp near Nauplia. On the following day he sent a herald to Antigonus, calling him a robber, and challenging him to come down into the plain and fight with him for the kingdom. 2 But Antigonus replied that in conducting a campaign he relied more on opportunities than upon arms, and that many roads to death lay open to Pyrrhus if he was tired of life. And now to both kings came ambassadors from Argos, entreating them to go away and allow the city to be neutral, but well-disposed towards both. Antigonus, accordingly, consented, and gave his son to the Argives as a hostage; Pyrrhus also agreed to go away, but since he gave no pledge, he remained under suspicion.
[Pyrrh. 31.3] 3 Moreover, Pyrrhus himself had a significant portent; for the heads of his sacrificed cattle, though they already lay apart from the bodies, were seen to put out their tongues and lick up their own gore. And besides this, in the city of Argos the priestess of Apollo Lyceius ran forth from the temple crying that she saw the city full of corpses and slaughter, and that the eagle which visited the scene of combat presently vanished away.
[Pyrrh. 32.1] 32 1 At dead of night Pyrrhus came up to the walls of the city, and finding that the gate called Diamperes had been thrown open for them by Aristeas, was undiscovered long enough for his Gauls to enter the city and take possession of the market-place. But the gate would not admit his elephants, and therefore the towers had to be taken off their backs and put on again when the animals were inside, in darkness and confusion. This caused delay, and the Argives, taking the alarm, ran up to Aspis and other strong places of the city, and sending to Antigonus called upon him for help. 2 Antigonus marched up close to the city, and lying in wait there himself, sent his generals and his son inside with a considerable relief-force. Areus also came, with a thousand Cretans and Spartans (the most lightly armed). All these troops united in an assault upon the Gauls and threw them into great confusion. And Pyrrhus, who now entered the city with shouts and cries by way of Cylarabis, noticed that the Gauls did not answer his men with any vigour or courage, and therefore conjectured that their response was that of men confounded and in distress. 3 Accordingly, he led on faster, pushing along the horsemen in front of him, who were making their way with difficulty among the water-conduits, of which the city is full, and were in peril of their lives from them. And now, in this night-battle, there was great uncertainty as to what commands were given and how the commands were carried out; men straggled and lost their way among the narrow streets, and generalship was of no avail owing to the darkness, confused shouting, and confined spaces; both parties therefore were unable to accomplish anything and waited for the day.
[Pyrrh. 32.4] 4 But when at last it began to grow light, the sight of the Aspis filled with armed enemies greatly disturbed Pyrrhus; moreover, among the numerous votive-offerings in the market-place he caught sight of a wolf and bull in bronze, represented as closing with one another in battle, and he was dumbfounded, for he called to mind an ancient oracle which declared that it was fated for him to die when he saw a wolf fighting with a bull. 5 Now, the Argives say that these figures were set up in their market-place as memorials of an ancient event. Namely, when Danaüs first landed in the country, near Pyramia in the district of Thyreatis, and was on his way to Argos, he saw a wolf fighting with a bull; and conceiving that he himself was represented by the wolf (since both were strangers and were attacking the natives), he watched the battle to its end, and when the wolf had prevailed, paid his vows to Apollo Lyceius (the wolf-god), attacked the city, and was victorious, after Gelanor, who was at that time king of Argos, had been driven out by a faction. This, then, was the significance of the dedication.
[Pyrrh. 33.1] 33 1 Dejected at this sight, as well as because none of his hopes were being realized, Pyrrhus proposed to retreat; but fearing the narrowness of the gates he sent to his son Helenus, who had been left outside the city with the greater part of the forces, ordering him to tear down part of the wall and succour those who rushed out through the breach, in case the enemy molested them. 2 Owing to the haste and tumult, however, the messenger brought no clear orders, but actually made a mistake, and the young prince, taking the rest of the elephants and the best of his soldiers, marched through the gate into the city to help his father. But Pyrrhus was already on the retreat. 3 And as long as the market-place afforded him room for withdrawing and fighting, he would turn and repel his assailants; but after he had been driven out of the market-place into the narrow street which led up to the gate, and encountered those who were rushing to his aid from the opposite direction, some of these could not hear him when he called out to them to withdraw, and those who did, even though they were very ready to obey him, were kept from doing so by those who were pouring in behind them from the gate. 4 For the largest of the elephants had fallen athwart the gateway and lay there roaring, in the way of those who would have turned back; and another elephant, one of those which had gone on into the city, Nicon by name, seeking to recover his rider, who had fallen from his back in consequence of wounds, and dashing in the face of those who were trying to get out, crowded friends and foes alike together in a promiscuous throng, 5 until, having found the body of his master, he took it up with his proboscis, laid it across his two tusks, and turned back as if crazed, overthrowing and killing those who came in his way. Thus crushed and matted together not a man of them could act at all for himself, but the whole multitude, bolted together, as it were, into one body, kept rolling and swaying this way and that. 6 Little fighting could be done against those of the enemy who were continually being caught up into their ranks or attacking them from the rear, and they wrought most harm to themselves. For when a man had drawn his sword or poised his spear, he could not recover or sheathe his weapon again, but it would pass through those who stood in its way, and so they died from one another’s blows.
[Pyrrh. 34.1] 34 1 But Pyrrhus, seeing the stormy sea that surged about him, took off the coronal with which his helmet was distinguished, and gave it to one of his companions; then, relying on his horse, he plunged in among the enemy who were pursuing him. Here he was wounded by a spear which pierced his breastplate — not a mortal, nor even a severe wound — and turned upon the man who had struck him, who was an Argive, not of illustrious birth, but the son of a poor old woman. 2 His mother, like the rest of the women, was at this moment watching the battle from the house-top, and when she saw that her son was engaged in conflict with Pyrrhus, she was filled with distress in view of the danger to him, and lifting up a tile with both her hands threw it at Pyrrhus. It fell upon his head below his helmet and crushed the vertebrae at the base of his neck, so that his sight was blurred and his hands dropped the reins. Then he sank down from his horse and fell near the tomb of Licymnius, unrecognised by most who saw him. 3 But a certain Zopyrus, who was serving under Antigonus, and two or three others, ran up to him, saw who he was, and dragged him into a door-way just as he was beginning to recover from the blow. And when Zopyrus drew an Illyrian short-sword with which to cut off his head, Pyrrhus gave him a terrible look, so that Zopyrus was frightened; his hands trembled, and yet he essayed the deed; but being full of alarm and confusion his blow did not fall true, but along the mouth and chin, so that it was only slowly and with difficulty that he severed the head. 4 Presently what had happened was known to many, and Alcyoneus, running to the spot, asked for the head as if he would see whose it was. But when he had got it he rode away to his father, and cast it down before him as he sat among his friends. Antigonus, however, when he saw and recognised the head, drove his son away, smiting him with his staff and calling him impious and barbarous; then, covering his face with his cloak he burst into tears, calling to mind Antigonus his grandfather and Demetrius his father, who were examples in his own family of a reversal of fortune.
[Pyrrh. 34.5] 5 The head and body of Pyrrhus, then, Antigonus caused to be adorned for burial and burned; and when Alcyoneus found Helenus in an abject state and wearing a paltry cloak, and spoke to him kindly and brought him into the presence of his father, Antigonus was pleased with his conduct, and said: “This is better, my son, than what thou didst before; but not even now hast thou done well in allowing this clothing to remain, which is a disgrace the rather to us who are held to be the victors.” 6 Then, after showing kindness to Helenus and adorning his person, he sent him back to Epeirus, and he dealt mildly with the friends of Pyrrhus when he became master of their camp and of their whole force.

## Marius

[Mar. 1.1] 1 1 OF a third name for Caius Marius we are ignorant, as we are in the case of Quintus Sertorius the subduer of Spain, and of Lucius Mummius the captor of Corinth; for Mummius received the surname of Achaïcus from his great exploit, as Scipio received that of Africanus, and Metellus that of Macedonicus. 2 From this circumstance particularly Poseidonius thinks to confute those who hold that the third name is the Roman proper name, as, for instance, Camillus, Marcellus, or Cato; for if that were so, he says, then those with only two names would have had no proper name at all. But it escapes his notice that his own line of reasoning, if extended to women, robs them of their proper names; for no woman is given the first name, which Poseidonius thinks was the proper name among the Romans. 3 Moreover, of the other two names, one was common to the whole family, as in the case of the Pompeii, the Manlii, or the Cornelii (just as a Greek might speak of the Heracleidae or the Pelopidae), and the other was a cognomen or epithet, given with reference to their natures or their actions, or to their bodily appearances or defects, Macrinus, for example, or Torquatus, or Sulla (like the Greek Mnemon, Grypus, or Callinicus). However, in these matters the irregularity of custom furnishes many topics for discussion.
[Mar. 2.1] 2 1 As for the personal appearance of Marius, we have seen a marble statue of him at Ravenna in Gaul, and it very well portrays the harshness and bitterness of character which were ascribed to him. For since he was naturally virile and fond of war, and since he received a training in military rather than in civil life, his temper was fierce when he came to exercise authority. 2 Moreover, we are told that he never studied Greek literature, and never used the Greek language for any matter of real importance, thinking it ridiculous to study a literature the teachers of which were the subject of another people; and when, after his second triumph and at the consecration of some temple, he furnished the public with Greek spectacles, though he came into the theatre, he merely sat down, and at once went away. 3 Accordingly, just as Plato was wont to say often to Xenocrates the philosopher, who had the reputation of being rather morose in his disposition, “My good Xenocrates, sacrifice to the Graces,” so if Marius could have been persuaded to sacrifice to the Greek Muses and Graces, he would not have put the ugliest possible crown upon a most illustrious career in field and forum, nor have been driven by the blasts of passion, ill-timed ambition, and insatiable greed upon the shore of a most cruel and savage old age. However, his actual career shall at once bring this into clear view.
[Mar. 3.1] 3 1 Born of parents who were altogether obscure — poor people who lived by the labour of their own hands (Marius was his father’s name, Fulcinia that of his mother), it was not till late that he saw the city or got a taste of city ways. In the meantime he lived at Cirrhaeaton, a village in the territory of Arpinum, in a manner that was quite rude when compared with the polished life of a city, but temperate, and in harmony with the rearing which the ancient Romans gave their children. 2 His first service as a soldier was in a campaign against the Celtiberians, when Scipio Africanus was besieging Numantia, and he attracted the notice of his general by excelling the other young men in bravery, and by his very cheerful acceptance of the changed regimen which Scipio introduced into his army when it was spoiled by luxury and extravagance. It is said, too, that he encountered and laid low an enemy in the sight of his general. 3 Therefore he was advanced by his commander to many honours; and once, when the talk after supper had to do with generals, and one of the company (either because he really wished to know or merely sought to please) asked Scipio where the Roman people would find any such chieftain and leader to follow him, Scipio, gently tapping Marius on the shoulder as he reclined next him, said: “Here, perhaps.” So gifted by nature were both men; the one in showing himself great while still a young man, and the other in discerning the end from the beginning.
[Mar. 4.1] 4 1 So, then, Marius, filled with high hopes, we are told, by this speech of Scipio in particular, as if it were a divine utterance in prophecy, set out upon a political career, and was made tribune of the people with the assistance of Caecilius Metellus, of whose house he had always been an hereditary adherent. 2 While serving as tribune he introduced a law concerning the mode of voting, which, as it was thought, would lessen the power of the nobles in judicial cases; whereupon Cotta the consul opposed him and persuaded the senate to contest the law, and to summon Marius before it to explain his procedure. The senate voted to do this, and Marius appeared before it. He did not, however, behave like a young man who had just entered political life without any brilliant services behind him, but assumed at once the assurance which his subsequent achievements gave him, and threatened to hale Cotta off to prison unless he had the vote rescinded. 3 Cotta then turned to Metellus and asked him to express his opinion, and Metellus, rising in his place, concurred with the consul; but Marius called in the officer and ordered him to conduct Metellus himself to prison. Metellus appealed to the other tribunes, but none of them came to his support, so the senate gave way and rescinded its vote. Marius therefore came forth in triumph to the people and got them to ratify his law. Men now thought him superior to fear, unmoved by respect of persons, and a formidable champion of the people in opposition to the senate. 4 However, this opinion was quickly modified by another political procedure of his. For when a law was introduced providing for the distribution of grain to the citizens, he opposed it most strenuously and carried the day, thereby winning for himself an equal place in the esteem of both parties as a man who favoured neither at the expense of the general good.
[Mar. 5.1] 5 1 After his tribuneship, he became a candidate for the higher aedileship. For there are two classes of aediles, one taking its name of “curule” from the chair with curving feet on which the magistrates sit in the exercise of their functions, the other, and the inferior, being called “plebeian.” When the superior aediles have been elected, the people cast a second vote for the others. 2 Accordingly, when it was clear that Marius was losing his election to the higher office, he immediately changed his tactics and applied for the other. But men thought him bold and obstinate, and he was defeated; nevertheless, although he had met with two failures in one day, a thing which had never happened to any candidate before, he did not lower his assurance in the least, but not long afterwards became a candidate for the praetorship and nearly missed defeat; he was returned last of all, and prosecuted for bribery.
[Mar. 5.3] 3 Suspicion was chiefly aroused by the sight of a servant of Cassius Sabaco inside the palings among the voters; for Sabaco was an especial friend of Marius. Sabaco was therefore summoned before the court, and testified that the heat had made him so thirsty that he had called for cold water, and that his servant had come in to him with a cup, and had then gone away after his master had drunk. 4 Sabaco, however, was expelled from the senate by the censors of the next year, and it was thought that he deserved this punishment, either because he had given false testimony, or because of his intemperance. But Caius Herennius also was brought in as a witness against Marius, and pleaded that it was contrary to established usage for patrons (the Roman term for our representatives at law) to bear witness against clients, and that the law relieved them of this necessity; and not only the parents of Marius but Marius himself had originally been clients of the house of the Herennii. 5 The jurors accepted this plea in avoidance of testimony, but Marius himself contradicted Herennius, declaring that as soon as he had been elected to his magistracy he had ceased to be a client; which was not altogether true. For it is not every magistracy that frees its occupants (as well as their posterity) from their relations to a patron, but only that to which the law assigns the curule chair. However, although during the first days of the trial Marius fared badly and found the jurors severe towards him, on the last day, contrary to all expectation, there was a tie vote and he was acquitted.
[Mar. 6.1] 6 1 Well, then, for his praetorship Marius got only moderate commendation. After his praetorship, however, the province of Farther Spain was allotted to him, and here he is said to have cleared away the robbers, although the province was still uncivilized in its customs and in a savage state, and robbery was at that time still considered a most honourable occupation by the Spaniards. But when he returned to political life, he had neither wealth nor eloquence, with which the magnates of the time used to influence the people. 2 Still, the very intensity of his assurance, his indefatigable labours, and his plain and simple way of living, won him a certain popularity among his fellow citizens, and his honours brought him increasing influence, so that he married into the illustrious family of the Caesars and became the husband of Julia, who was the aunt of that Caesar who in after times became greatest among the Romans, and in some degree, because of his relationship, made Marius his example, as I have stated in his Life.
[Mar. 6.3] 3 There is testimony both to the temperance of Marius, and also to his fortitude, of which his behaviour under a surgical operation is a proof. He was afflicted in both legs, as it would appear, with varicose veins, and as he disliked the deformity, he resolved to put himself into the physician’s hands. Refusing to be bound, he presented to him one leg, and then, without a motion or a groan, but with a steadfast countenance and in silence, endured incredible pain under the knife. When, however, the physician was proceeding to treat the other leg, Marius would suffer him no further, declaring that he saw the cure to be not worth the pain.
[Mar. 7.1] 7 1 When Caecilius Metellus the consul was appointed commander-in chief for the war against Jugurtha, he took Marius with him to Africa in the capacity of legate. Here, in essaying great exploits and brilliant struggles, Marius was not careful, like the rest, to enhance the glory of Metellus and conduct himself in his interests; and deeming that he had not so much been called by Metellus to the office of legate as he was being introduced by Fortune into a most favourable opportunity as well as a most spacious theatre for exploits, he made a display of every sort of bravery. 2 And though the war brought many hardships, he neither shunned any great labour, nor disdained any that were small, but surpassed the officers of his own rank in giving good counsel and foreseeing what was advantageous, and vied with the common soldiers in frugality and endurance, thereby winning much goodwill among them. 3 For as a general thing it would seem that every man finds solace for his labours in seeing another voluntarily share those labours; this seems to take away the element of compulsion; and it is a most agreeable spectacle for a Roman soldier when he sees a general eating common bread in public, or sleeping on a simple pallet, or taking a hand in the construction of some trench or palisade. For they have not so much admiration for those leaders who share honour and riches with them as for those who take part in their toils and dangers, but have more affection for those who are willing to join in their toils than for those who permit them to lead an easy life.
[Mar. 7.4] 4 By doing all these things and thereby winning the hearts of the soldiers, Marius soon filled Africa, and soon filled Rome, with his name and fame, and men in the camp wrote to those at home that there would be no end or cessation of the war against the Barbarian unless they chose Caius Marius consul.
[Mar. 8.1] 8 1 At all this Metellus was evidently displeased. But it was the affair of Turpillius that most vexed him. This Turpillius was an hereditary guest-friend of Metellus, and at this time was serving in the army as chief of engineers. But he was put in charge of Vaga, a large city, and because he relied for safety on his doing the inhabitants no wrong, but rather treating them with kindness and humanity, he unawares came into the power of the enemy; for they admitted Jugurtha into their city. Still, they did Turpillius no harm, but obtained his release and sent him away safe and sound. 2 Accordingly, a charge of treachery was brought against him; and Marius, who was a member of the council which tried the case, was himself bitter, and exasperated most of the others against the accused, so that Metellus was reluctantly forced to pass sentence of death upon him. After a short time, however, the charge was found to be false, and almost everybody sympathized with Metellus in his grief; but Marius, full of joy and claiming the condemnation as his own work, was not ashamed to go about saying that he had fastened upon the path of Metellus a daemon who would avenge the murder of a guest-friend.
[Mar. 8.3] 3 In consequence of this there was open enmity between the two men; and we are told that on one occasion when Marius was present Metellus said to him as if in mockery: “Dost thou purpose to leave us, my good Sir, and sail for home, and stand for the consulship? Pray will it not satisfy thee to be fellow-consul with this my son?” Now the son of Metellus was at this time a mere stripling. 4 However, Marius was eager to be dismissed, and so, after making many postponements, and when only twelve days remained before the election of consuls, Metellus dismissed him. Marius accomplished the long journey from the camp to Utica and the sea in two days and one night, and offered sacrifice before he sailed. And the seer is said to have told him that the Deity revealed for Marius successes that were of incredible magnitude and beyond his every expectation. 5 Elated by this prophecy he put out to sea. In three days he crossed the sea with a favouring wind, and was at once welcomed gladly by the populace, and after being introduced to the assembly by one of the tribunes, he first made many slanderous charges against Metellus, and then asked for the consulship, promising that he would either kill Jugurtha or take him alive.
[Mar. 9.1] 9 1 He was triumphantly elected, and at once began to levy troops. Contrary to law and custom he enlisted many a poor and insignificant man, although former commanders had not accepted such persons, but bestowed arms, just as they would any other honour, only on those whose property assessment made them worthy to receive these, each soldier being supposed to put his substance in pledge to the state. 2 It was not this, however, that brought most odium upon Marius, but the boldly insolent and arrogant speeches with which he vexed the nobles, crying out that he had carried off the consulship as spoil from the effeminacy of the rich and well-born, and that he had wounds upon his own person with which to vaunt himself before the people, not monuments of the dead nor likenesses of other men. 3 Often, too, he would mention by name the generals in Africa who had been unsuccessful, now Bestia, and now Albinus, men of illustrious houses indeed, but unfortunate themselves, and unwarlike, who had met with disaster through lack of experience; and he would ask his audience if they did not think that the ancestors of these men would have much preferred to leave descendants like himself, since they themselves had been made illustrious, not by their noble birth, but by their valour and noble deeds. 4 Such talk was not mere empty boasting, nor was his desire to make himself hated by the nobility without purpose; indeed the people, who were delighted to have the senate insulted and always measured the greatness of a man’s spirit by the boastfulness of his speech, encouraged him, and incited him not to spare men of high repute if he wished to please the multitude.
[Mar. 10.1] 10 1 When he had crossed to Africa, Metellus, now become a victim of jealousy, and vexed because, after he had brought the war to an end and had nothing further to do except to seize the person of Jugurtha, Marius was coming to enjoy the crown and the triumph, — a man whose ingratitude towards his benefactor had raised him to power, — would not consent to meet him, but privately left the country while Rutilius, who had become his legate, handed over the army to Marius. 2 And in the end a retribution fell upon Marius; for Sulla robbed him of the glory of his success, as Marius had robbed Metellus. How this came to pass, I will narrate briefly, since the details are given more at length in my Life of Sulla.
[Mar. 10.3] Bocchus, the king of the Barbarians in the interior, was a son-in law of Jugurtha, and apparently gave him little or no assistance in his war, alleging his faithlessness as an excuse, and fearing the growth of his power. 3 But when Jugurtha in his flight and wandering felt compelled to make him his last hope and sought haven with him, Bocchus received him, more out of regard for his position as a suppliant than from goodwill, and kept him in his hands. So far as his open acts were concerned, Bocchus entreated Marius in behalf of his father-in law, writing that he would not give him up and assuming a bold tone; but secretly he planned to betray him, and sent for Lucius Sulla, who was quaestor for Marius and had been of some service to Bocchus during the campaign. 4 But when Sulla had come to him in all confidence, the Barbarian experienced a change of heart and felt repentant, and for many days wavered in his plans, deliberating whether to surrender Jugurtha or to hold Sulla also a prisoner. Finally however, he decided upon his first plan of treachery, and put Jugurtha alive into the hands of Sulla.
[Mar. 10.5] 5 This was the first seed of that bitter and incurable hatred between Marius and Sulla, which nearly brought Rome to ruin. For many wished Sulla to have the glory of the affair because they hated Marius, and Sulla himself had a seal-ring made, which he used to wear, on which was engraved the surrender of Jugurtha to him by Bocchus. 6 By constantly using this ring Sulla provoked Marius, who was an ambitious man, loath to share his glory with another, and quarrelsome. And the enemies of Marius gave Sulla most encouragement, by attributing the first and greatest successes of the war to Metellus, but the last, and the termination of it, to Sulla, so that the people might cease admiring Marius and giving him their chief allegiance.
[Mar. 11.1] 11 Soon, however, all this envy and hatred and slander of Marius was removed and dissipated by the peril which threatened Italy from the west, as soon as the state felt the need of a great general and looked about for a helmsman whom she might employ to save her from so great a deluge of war. Then the people would have nothing to do with anyone of high birth or of a wealthy house who offered himself at the consular elections, but proclaimed Marius consul in spite of his absence from the city. 2 For no sooner had word been brought to the people of the capture of Jugurtha than the reports about the Teutones and Cimbri fell upon their ears. What these reports said about the numbers and strength of the invading hosts was disbelieved at first, but afterwards it was found to be short of the truth. For three hundred thousand armed fighting men were advancing, and much larger hordes of women and children were said to accompany them, in quest of land to support so vast a multitude, and of cities in which to settle and live, just as the Gauls before them, as they learned, had wrested the best part of Italy from the Tyrrhenians and now occupied it. 3 They themselves, indeed, had not had intercourse with other peoples, and had traversed a great stretch of country, so that it could not be ascertained what people it was nor whence they had set out, thus to descend upon Gaul and Italy like a cloud. The most prevalent conjecture was that they were some of the German peoples which extended as far as the northern ocean, a conjecture based on their great stature, their light-blue eyes, and the fact that the Germans call robbers Cimbri.
[Mar. 11.4] 4 But there are some who say that Gaul was wide and large enough to reach from the outer sea and the subarctic regionsc to the Maeotic Lake on the east, where it bordered on Pontic Scythia, and that from that point on Gauls and Scythians were mingled. These mixed Gauls and Scythians had left their home and moved westward, not in a single march, nor even continuously, but with each recurring spring they had gone forward, fighting their way, and in the course of time had crossed the continent. 5 Therefore, while they had many different names for different detachments, they called their whole army by the general name of Galloscythians.
[Mar. 11.6] Others, however, say that the Cimmerians who were first known to the ancient Greeks were not a large part of the entire people, but merely a body of exiles or a faction which was driven away by the Scythians and passed from the Maeotic Lake into Asia under the lead of Lygdamis; whereas the largest and most warlike part of the people dwelt at the confines of the earth along the outer sea, occupying a land that is shaded, wooded, and wholly sunless by reason of the height and thickness of the trees, 6 which reach inland as far as the Hercynii; and as regards the heavens, they are under that portion of them where the pole gets a great elevation by reason of the declination of the parallels, and appears to have a position not far removed from the spectator’s zenith, and a day and a night divide the year into two equal parts; which was of advantage to Homer in his story of Odysseus consulting the shades of the dead. 7 From these regions, then, these Barbarians sallied forth against Italy, being called at first Cimmerians, and then, not inappropriately, Cimbri. But all this is based on conjecture rather than on sure historical evidence.
[Mar. 11.8] 8 Their numbers, however, are given by many writers as not less, but more, than the figure mentioned above. Moreover, their courage and daring made them irresistible, and when they engaged in battle they came on with the swiftness and force of fire, so that no one could withstand their onset, but all who came in their way became their prey and booty, and even many large Roman armies, with their commanders, who had been stationed to protect Transalpine Gaul, were destroyed ingloriously; 9 indeed, by their feeble resistance they were mainly instrumental in drawing the on-rushing Barbarians down upon Rome. For when the invaders had conquered those who opposed them, and had got abundance of booty, they determined not to settle themselves anywhere until they had destroyed Rome and ravaged Italy.
[Mar. 12.1] 12 1 Learning of these things from many quarters, the Romans summoned Marius to the command. And he was appointed consul for the second time, although the law forbade that a man in his absence and before the lapse of a specified time should be elected again; still, the people would not listen to those who opposed the election. For they considered that this would not be the first time that the law had given way before the demands of the general good, and that the present occasion demanded it no less imperatively than when they had made Scipio consul contrary to the laws, although at that time they were not fearful of losing their own city, but desirous of destroying that of the Carthaginians. 2 This course was adopted, Marius came across the sea from Africa with his army, and on the very Calends of January, which with the Romans is the first day of the year, assumed the consulship and celebrated his triumph, exhibiting to the Romans Jugurtha in chains. This was a sight which they had despaired of beholding, nor could any one have expected, while Jugurtha was alive, to conquer the enemy; so versatile was he in adapting himself to the turns of fortune, and so great craft did he combine with his courage. 3 But we are told that when he had been led in triumph he lost his reason; and that when, after the triumph, he was cast into prison, where some tore his tunic from his body, and others were so eager to snatch away his golden ear-ring that they tore off with it the lobe of his ear, and when he had been thrust down naked into the dungeon pit, in utter bewilderment and with a grin on his lips he said: “Hercules! How cold this Roman bath is!” 4 But the wretch, after struggling with hunger for six days and up to the last moment clinging to the desire of life, paid the penalty which his crimes deserved.
[Mar. 12.1b] In the triumphal procession there were carried, we are told, three thousand and seven pounds of gold, of uncoined silver five thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and in coined money two hundred and eighty-seven thousand drachmas.
[Mar. 12.5] 5 After the procession was over, Marius called the senate into session on the Capitol, and made his entry, either through inadvertence or with a vulgar display of his good fortune, in his triumphal robes; but perceiving quickly that the senators were offended at this, he rose and went out, changed to the usual robe with purple border, and then came back.
[Mar. 13.1] 13 1 Setting out on the expedition, he laboured to perfect his army as it went along, practising the men in all kinds of running and in long marches, and compelling them to carry their own baggage and to prepare their own food. Hence, in after times, men who were fond of toil and did whatever was enjoined upon them contentedly and without a murmur, were called Marian mules. Some, however, think that this name had a different origin. 2 Namely, when Scipio was besieging Numantia, he wished to inspect not only the arms and the horses, but also the mules and the waggons, that every man might have them in readiness and good order. Marius, accordingly, brought out for inspection both a horse that had been most excellently taken care of by him, and a mule that for health, docility, and strength far surpassed all the rest. The commanding officer was naturally well pleased with the beasts of Marius and often spoke about them, so that in time those who wanted to bestow facetious praise on a persevering, patient, laborious man would call him a Marian mule.
[Mar. 14.1] 14 1 And now, as it would seem, a great piece of good fortune befell Marius. For the Barbarians had a reflux, as it were, in their course, and streamed first into Spain. This gave Marius time to exercise the bodies of his men, to raise their spirits to a sturdier courage, and, what was the most important of all, to let them find out what sort of a man he was. 2 For his sternness in the exercise of authority and his inflexibility in the infliction of punishment appeared to them, when they became accustomed to obedience and good behaviour, salutary as well as just, and they regarded the fierceness of his temper, the harshness of his voice, and that ferocity of his countenance which gradually became familiar, as fearful to their enemies rather than to themselves. 3 But it was above all things the uprightness of his judicial decisions that pleased the soldiers; and of this the following illustration is given.
[Mar. 14.4] Caius Lusius, a nephew of his, had a command under him in the army. In other respects he was a man of good reputation, but he had a weakness for beautiful youths. This officer was enamoured of one of the young men who served under him, by name Trebonius, and had on made unsuccessful attempts to seduce him. 4 But finally, at night, he sent a servant with a summons for Trebonius. The young man came, since he could not refuse to obey a summons, but when he had been introduced into the tent and Caius attempted violence upon him, he drew his sword and slew him. Marius was not with the army when this happened; but on his return he brought Trebonius to trial. 5 Here there were many accusers, but not a single advocate, wherefore Trebonius himself courageously took the stand and told all about the matter, bringing witnesses to show that he had often refused the solicitations of Lusius and that in spite of large offers he had never prostituted himself to anyone. Then Marius, filled with delight and admiration, ordered the customary crown for brave exploits to be brought, and with his own hands placed it on the head of Trebonius, declaring that at a time which called for noble examples he had displayed the most noble conduct.
[Mar. 14.6] 6 Tidings of this were brought to Rome and helped in no small degree to secure for Marius his third consulship; at the same time, too, the Barbarians were expected in the spring, and the Romans were unwilling to risk battle with them under any other general. However, the Barbarians did not come as soon as they were expected, and once more the period of Marius’s consulship expired. 7 As the consular elections were at hand, and as his colleague in the office had died, Marius left Manius Aquillius in charge of the forces and came himself to Rome. Here many men of great merit were candidates for the consulship, but Lucius Saturninus, who had more influence with the people than any other tribune, was won over by the flattering attentions of Marius, and in his harangues urged the people to elect Marius consul. Marius affected to decline the office and declared that he did not want it, but Saturninus called him a traitor to his country for refusing to command her armies at a time of so great peril. 8 Now, it was clear that Saturninus was playing his part at the instigation of Marius, and playing it badly, too, but the multitude, seeing that occasion required the ability as well as the good fortune of Marius, voted for his fourth consulship, and made Catulus Lutatius his colleague, a man who was esteemed by the nobility and not disliked by the common people.
[Mar. 15.1] 15 1 Learning that the enemy were near, Marius rapidly crossed the Alps, and built a fortified camp along the river Rhone. Into this he brought together an abundance of stores, that he might never be forced by lack of provisions to give battle contrary to his better judgment. 2 The conveyance of what was needful for his army, which had previously been a long and costly process where it was by sea, he rendered easy and speedy. That is, the mouths of the Rhone, encountering the sea, took up great quantities of mud and sand packed close with clay by the action of the billows, and made the entrance of the river difficult, laborious, and slow for vessels carrying supplies. 3 So Marius brought his army to the place, since the men had nothing else to do, and ran a great canal. Into this he diverted a great part of the river and brought it round to a suitable place on the coast, a deep bay where large ships could float, and where the water could flow out smoothly and without waves to the sea. This canal, indeed, still bears the name of Marius.
[Mar. 15.4] 4 The Barbarians divided themselves into two bands, and it fell to the lot of the Cimbri to proceed through Noricum in the interior of the country against Catulus, and of a passage there, while the Teutones and Ambrones were to march through Liguria along the sea-coast against Marius. 5 On the part of the Cimbri there was considerable delay and loss of time, but the Teutones and Ambrones set out at once, passed through the intervening country, and made their appearance before Marius. Their numbers were limitless, they were hideous in their aspect, and their speech and cries were unlike those of other peoples. They covered a large part of the plain, and after pitching their camp challenged Marius to battle.
[Mar. 16.1] 16 1 Marius, however, paid no heed to them, but kept his soldiers inside their fortifications, bitterly rebuking those who would have made a display of their courage, and calling those whose high spirit made them wish to rush forth and give battle traitors to their country. For it was not, he said, triumphs or trophies that should now be the object of their ambition, but how they might ward off so great a cloud and thunder-bolt of war and secure the safety of Italy. 2 This was his language in private to his officers and equals; but he would station his soldiers on the fortifications by detachments, bidding them to observe the enemy, and in this way accustomed them not to fear their shape or dread their cries, which were altogether strange and ferocious; and to make themselves acquainted with their equipment and movements, thus in the course of time rendering what was only apparently formidable familiar to their minds from observation. For he considered that their novelty falsely imparts to terrifying objects many qualities which they do not possess, but that with familiarity even those things which are really dreadful lose their power to affright. 3 And so in the case of his soldiers, not only did the daily sight of the enemy lessen somewhat their amazement at them, but also, when they heard the threats and the intolerable boasting of the Barbarians, their anger rose and warmed and set on fire their spirits; for the enemy were ravaging and plundering all the country round, and besides, often attacked the Roman fortifications with great temerity and shamelessness, so that indignant speeches of his soldiers reached the ears of Marius. 4 “What cowardice, pray, has Marius discovered in us that he keeps out of battle like women under lock and key? Come, let us act like freemen and ask him if he is waiting for other soldiers to fight in defence of Italy, and will use us as workmen all the time, whenever there is need of digging ditches and clearing out mud and diverting a river or two. 5 For it was to this end, as it would seem, that he exercised us in those many toils, and these are the achievements of his consulships which he will exhibit to his fellow-citizens on his return to Rome. Or does he fear the fate of Carbo and Caepio, whom the enemy defeated? But they were far behind Marius in reputation and excellence, and led an army that was far inferior to his. Surely it is better to do something, even if we perish as they did, rather than to sit here and enjoy the spectacle of our allies being plundered.”
[Mar. 17.1] 17 1 Marius was delighted to hear of such expressions, and tried to calm the soldiers down by telling them that he did not distrust them, but in consequence of certain oracles was awaiting a fit time and place for his victory. And indeed he used to carry about ceremoniously in a litter a certain Syrian woman, named Martha, who was said to have the gift of prophecy, and he would make sacrifices at her bidding. She had previously been rejected by the senate when she wished to appear before them with reference to these matters and predicted future events. 2 Then she got audience of the women and gave them proofs of her skill, and particularly the wife of Marius, at whose feet she sat when some gladiators were fighting and successfully foretold which one was going to be victorious. In consequence of this she was sent to Marius by his wife, and was admired by him. As a general thing she was carried along with the army in a litter, but she attended the sacrifices clothed in a double purple robe that was fastened with a clasp, and carrying a spear that was wreathed with fillets and chaplets. 3 Such a performance as this caused many to doubt whether Marius, in exhibiting the woman, really believed in her, or was pretending to do so and merely acted a part with her.
[Mar. 17.1b] The affair of the vultures, however, which Alexander of Myndus relates, is certainly wonderful. Two vultures were always seen hovering about the armies of Marius before their victories, and accompanied them on their journeys, being recognized by bronze rings on their necks; for the soldiers had caught them, put these rings on, and let them go again; and after this, on recognizing the birds, the soldiers greeted them, and they were glad to see them when they set out upon a march, feeling sure in such cases that they would be successful.
[Mar. 17.4] 4 Many signs also appeared, most of which were of the ordinary kind; but from Ameria and Tuder, cities of Italy, it was reported that at night there had been seen in the heavens flaming spears, and shields which at first moved in different directions, and then clashed together, assuming the formations and movements of men in battle, and finally some of them would give way, while others pressed on in pursuit, and all streamed away to the westward. 5 Moreover, about this time Bataces, the priest of the Great Mother, came from Pessinus announcing that the goddess had declared to him from her shrine that the Romans were going to be victorious and triumphant in war. The senate gave credence to the story and voted that a temple should be built for the goddess in commemoration of the victory; but when Bataces came before the assembly and desired to tell the story, Aulus Pompeius, a tribune of the people, prevented him, calling him an impostor, and driving him with insults from the rostra. 6 And lo, this did more than anything else to gain credence for the man’s story. For hardly had Aulus gone back to his house after the assembly was dissolved, when he broke out with so violent a fever that he died within a week, and everybody knew and talked about it.
[Mar. 18.1] 18 1 But the Teutones, since Marius kept quiet, attempted to take his camp by storm; many missiles, however, were hurled against them from the fortifications, and they lost some of their men. They therefore decided to march forward, expecting to cross the Alps without molestation. So they packed up their baggage and began to march past the camp of the Romans. Then, indeed, the immensity of their numbers was made specially evident by the length of their line and the time required for their passage; for it is said they were six days in passing the fortifications of Marius, although they moved continuously. 2 And they marched close to the camp, inquiring whether the Romans had any messages for their wives; “for,” said they, “we shall soon be with them.” But when the Barbarians had passed by and were going on their way, Marius also broke camp and followed close upon them, always halting near by and at their very side, but strongly fortifying his camps and keeping strong positions in his front, so that he could pass the night in safety. 3 Thus the two armies went on until came to the place called Aquae Sextiae, from which they had to march only a short distance and they would be in the Alps. For this reason, indeed, Marius made preparations to give battle here, and he occupied for his camp a position that was strong, but poorly supplied with water, wishing, as they say, by this circumstance also to incite his soldiers to fight. 4 At any rate, when many of them were dissatisfied and said they would be thirsty there, he pointed to a river that ran near the barbarian fortifications, and told them they could get water there, but the price of it was blood. “Why, then,” they said, “dost thou not lead at once against the enemy, while our blood is still moist?” To which Marius calmly replied: “We must first make our camp strong.”
[Mar. 19.1] 19 1 His soldiers, accordingly, though reluctant, obeyed; but the throng of camp-servants, who had no water either for themselves or their beasts, went down in a body to the river, some taking hatchets, some axes, and some also swords and lances along with their water-jars, determined to get water even if they had to fight for it. With these only a few of the enemy at first engaged, since the main body were taking their meal after bathing, and some were still bathing. For streams of warm water burst from the ground in this place, and at these the Romans surprised a number of the Barbarians, who were enjoying themselves and making merry in this wonderfully pleasant place. 2 Their cries brought more of the Barbarians to the spot, and Marius had difficulty in longer restraining his soldiers, since they had fears now for their servants. Besides, the most warlike division of the enemy, by whom at an earlier time the Romans under Manlius and Caepio had been defeated (they were called Ambrones and of themselves numbered more than thirty thousand), had sprung up from their meal and were running to get their arms. 3 However, though their bodies were surfeited and weighed down with food and their spirits excited and disordered with strong wine, they did not rush on in a disorderly or frantic course, nor raise an inarticulate battle-cry, but rhythmically clashing their arms and leaping to the sound they would frequently shout out all together their tribal name Ambrones, either to encourage one another, or to terrify their enemies in advance by the declaration. 4 The first of the Italians to go down against them were the Ligurians, and when they had heard and understood what the Barbarians were shouting, they themselves shouted back the word, claiming it as their own ancestral appellation; for the Ligurians call themselves Ambrones by descent. Often, then, did the shout echo and reecho from either side before they came to close quarters; and since the hosts back of each party took up the cry by turns and strove each to outdo the other first in the magnitude of their shout, their cries roused and fired the spirit of the combatants.
[Mar. 19.5] 5 Well, then, the Ambrones became separated by the stream; for they did not all succeed in getting across and forming an array, but upon the foremost of them the Ligurians at once fell with a rush, and the fighting was hand-to hand. Then the Romans came to the aid of the Ligurians, and charging down from the heights upon the Barbarians overwhelmed and turned them back. 6 Most of the Ambrones were cut down there in the stream where they were all crowded together, and the river was filled with their blood and their dead bodies; the rest, after the Romans had crossed, did not dare to face about, and the Romans kept slaying them until they came in their flight to their camp and waggons. 7 Here the women met them, swords and axes in their hands, and with hideous shrieks of rage tried to drive back fugitives and pursuers alike, the fugitives as traitors, and the pursuers as foes; they mixed themselves up with the combatants, with bare hands tore away the shields of the Romans or grasped their swords, and endured wounds and mutilations, their fierce spirits unvanquished to the end. So, then, as we are told, the battle at the river was brought on by accident rather than by the intention of the commander.
[Mar. 20.1] 20 1 After destroying many of the Ambrones the Romans withdrew and night came on; but in spite of so great a success the army did not indulge in paeans of victory, or drinking in the tents, or friendly converse over suppers, or that sweetest of delights for men who have fought and won a battle, gentle sleep, but that night more than any other was spent in fears and commotions. 2 For their camp was still without palisade or wall, and there were still left many myriads of the Barbarians who had met with no defeat. These had been joined by all the Ambrones who survived the battle, and there was lamentation among them all night long, not like the wailings and groanings of men, but howlings and bellowings with a strain of the wild beast in them, mingled with threats and cries of grief, went up from this vast multitude and echoed among the surrounding hills and over the river valley. 3 The whole plain was filled with an awful din, the Romans with fear, and even Marius himself with consternation as he awaited some disorderly and confused night-battle. However, the Barbarians made no attack either during that night or the following day, but spent the time in marshalling their forces and making preparations.
[Mar. 20.4] 4 Meanwhile, since the position of the Barbarians was commanded by sloping glens and ravines that were shaded by trees, Marius sent Claudius Marcellus thither with three thousand men-at arms, under orders to lie concealed in ambush until the battle was on, and then to show themselves in the enemy’s rear. The rest of his soldiers, who had taken supper in good season and then got a night’s sleep, he led out at day-break and drew up in front of the camp, and sent out his cavalry into the plain. 5 The Teutones, seeing this, could not wait for the Romans to come down and fight with them on equal terms, but quickly and wrathfully armed themselves and charged up the hill. But Marius, sending his officers to all parts of the line, exhorted the soldiers to stand firmly in their lines, and when the enemy had got within reach to hurl their javelins, then take to their swords and crowd the Barbarians back with their shields; 6 for since the enemy were on precarious ground their blows would have no force and the locking of their shields no strength, but the unevenness of the ground would keep them turning and tossing about. This was the advice he gave his men, and they saw that he was first to act accordingly; for he was in better training than any of them, and in daring far surpassed them all.
[Mar. 21.1] 21 1 Accordingly, the Romans awaited the enemy’s onset, then closed with them and checked their upward rush, and at last, crowding them back little by little, forced them into the plain. Here, while the Barbarians in front were at last forming in line on level ground, there was shouting and commotion in their rear. For Marcellus had watched his opportunity, and when the cries of battle were borne up over the hills he put his men upon the run and fell with loud shouts upon the enemy’s rear, where he cut down the hindmost of them. 2 Those in the rear forced along those who were in front of them, and quickly plunged the whole army into confusion, and under this double attack they could not hold out long, but broke ranks and fled. The Romans pursued them and either slew or took alive over a hundred thousand of them, besides making themselves masters of the tents, waggons, and property, all of which, with the exception of what was pilfered, was given to Marius by vote of the soldiers. And though the gift that he received was so splendid, it was thought to be wholly unworthy of his services in the campaign, where the danger that threatened had been so great.
[Mar. 21.3] 3 There are some writers, however, who give a different account of the division of the spoils, and also of the number of the slain. Nevertheless, it is said that the people of Massalia fenced their vineyards round with the bones of the fallen, and that the soil, after the bodies had wasted away in it and the rains had fallen all winter upon it, grew so rich and became so full to its depths of the putrefied matter that sank into it, that it produced an exceeding great harvest in after years, and confirmed the saying of Archilochus that “fields are fattened” by such a process. 4 And it is said that extraordinary rains generally dash down after great battles, whether it is that some divine power drenches and hallows the ground with purifying waters from Heaven, or that the blood and putrefying matter send up a moist and heavy vapour which condenses the air, this being easily moved and readily changed to the highest degree by the slightest cause.
[Mar. 22.1] 22 1 After the battle, Marius collected such of the arms and spoils of the Barbarians as were handsome, entire, and fitted to make a show in his triumphal procession; all the rest he heaped up on a huge pyre and set on foot a magnificent sacrifice. 2 The soldiers had taken their stand about the pyre in arms, with chaplets on their heads, and Marius himself, having put on his purple-bordered robe and girt it about him, as the custom was, had taken a lighted torch, held it up towards heaven with both hands, and was just about to set fire to the pyre, when some friends were seen riding swiftly towards him, and there was deep silence and expectancy on the part of all. 3 But when the horsemen were near, they leaped to the ground and greeted Marius, bringing him the glad news that he had been elected consul for the fifth time, and giving him letters to that effect. This great cause for rejoicing having been added to the celebration of their victory, the soldiers, transported with delight, sent forth a universal shout, accompanied by the clash and clatter of their arms, and after his officers had crowned Marius afresh with wreaths of bay, he set fire to the pyre and completed the sacrifice.
[Mar. 23.1] 23 1 However, that power which permits no great successes to bring a pure and unmixed enjoyment, but diversifies human life with a blending of evil and of good — be it Fortune, or Nemesis, or Inevitable Necessity, within a few days brought to Marius tidings of his colleague Catulus, which, like a cloud in a calm and serene sky, involved Rome in another tempest of fear. 2 For Catulus, who was facing the Cimbri, gave up trying to guard the passes of the Alps, lest he should be weakened by the necessity of dividing his forces into many parts, and at once descended into the plains of Italy. Here he put the river Atiso between himself and the enemy, built strong fortifications on both banks of it to prevent their crossing, and threw a bridge across the stream, that he might be able to go to the help of the people on the other side in case the Barbarians made their way through the passes and attacked the fortresses. 3 But these Barbarians were so contemptuous and bold in following their enemies that, more by way of displaying their strength and daring than because it was necessary at all, they endured the snow-storms without any clothing, made their way through ice and deep snow to the summits, and from there, putting their broad shields under them and then letting themselves go, slid down the smooth and deeply fissured cliffs. 4 After they had encamped near the stream and examined the passage, they began to dam it up, tearing away the neighbouring hills, like the giants of old, carrying into the river whole trees with their roots, fragments of cliffs, and mounds of earth, and crowding the current out of its course; they also sent whirling down the stream against the piles of the bridge heavy masses which made the bridge quiver with their blows, until at last the greater part of the Roman soldiers played the coward, abandoned their main camp, and began to retreat.
[Mar. 23.5] 5 And now Catulus, like a consummately good commander, showed that he had less regard for his own reputation than for that of his countrymen. For finding that he could not persuade his soldiers to remain, and seeing that they were making off in terror, he ordered his standard to be taken up, ran to the foremost of the retiring troops, and put himself at their head, wishing that the disgrace should attach to himself and not to his country, and that his soldiers, in making their retreat, should not appear to be running away, but following their general. The Barbarian attacked and captured the fortress on the further side of the Atiso, and they so much admired the Romans there, who showed themselves bravest of men and fought worthily of their country, that they let them go on parole, making them take oath upon the bronze bull. This was subsequently captured, after the battle, and was carried, we are told, to the house of Catulus as the chief prize of the victory. But the country was now destitute of defenders, and the Barbarians inundated and ravaged it.
[Mar. 24.1] 24 1 In view of these things Marius was summoned to Rome. When he had arrived there, it was the general expectation that he would celebrate the triumph which the senate had readily voted him. But he refused to do so, either because he did not wish to deprive his soldiers and comrades-in arms of their due honours, or because he would encourage the multitude in view of the present crisis by entrusting the glory of his first success to the fortune of the state, in the hope that it would be returned to him enhanced by a second. 2 Having said what was suitable to the occasion, he set out to join Catulus, whom he tried to encourage, while at the same time he summoned his own soldiers from Gaul. When these had come, he crossed the Po and tried to keep the Barbarians out of the part of Italy lying this side of the river. But the Barbarians declined battle, alleging that they were waiting for their brethren the Teutones and wondered why they were so long in coming; this was either because they were really ignorant of their destruction, or because they wished to have the appearance of disbelieving it. 3 For they terribly mishandled those who brought tidings of it, and sent to Marius demanding territory for themselves and their brethren and enough cities for them to dwell in. When Marius asked their ambassadors whom they meant by their brethren, they said they meant the Teutones. At this, all the other Romans who heard them burst out laughing, and Marius scoffingly said: “Then don’t trouble yourself about your brethren, for they have land, and they will have it forever — land which we have given them.” 4 The ambassadors understood his sarcasm and fell to abusing him, declaring that he should be punished for it, by the Cimbri at once, and by the Teutones when they came. “Verily,” said Marius, “they are here, and it will not be right for you to go away before you have embraced your brethren.” Saying this, he ordered the kings of the Teutones to be produced in fetters; for they had been captured among the Alps, where they were fugitives, by the Sequani.
[Mar. 25.1] 25 1 When these things had been reported to the Cimbri, they once more advanced against Marius, who kept quiet and carefully guarded his camp. And it is said that it was in preparation for this battle that Marius introduced an innovation in the structure of the javelin. Up to this time, it seems, that part of the shaft which was let into the iron head was fastened there by two iron nails; but now, leaving one of these as it was, Marius removed the other, and put in its place a wooden pin that could easily be broken. 2 His design was that the javelin, after striking the enemy’s shield, should not stand straight out, but that the wooden peg should break, thus allowing the shaft to bend in the iron head and trail along the ground, being held fast by the twist at the point of the weapon.
[Mar. 25.3] And now Boeorix the king of the Cimbri, with a small retinue, rode up towards the camp and challenged Marius to set a day and a place and come out and fight for the ownership of the country. 3 Marius replied that the Romans never allowed their enemies to give them advice about fighting, but that he would nevertheless gratify the Cimbri in this matter. Accordingly, they decided that the day should be the third following, and the place the plain of Vercellae, which was suitable for the operations of the Roman cavalry, and would give the Cimbri room to deploy their numbers.
[Mar. 25.4] 4 When, therefore, the appointed time had come, the Romans drew up their forces for battle. Catulus had twenty thousand three hundred soldiers, while those of Marius amounted to thirty-two thousand, which were divided between both wings and had Catulus between them in the centre, as Sulla, who fought in this battle, has stated. 5 He says also that Marius hoped that the two lines would engage at their extremities chiefly and on the wings, in order that his soldiers might have the whole credit for the victory and that Catulus might not participate in the struggle nor even engage the enemy (since the centre, as is usual in battle-fronts of great extent, would be folded back); and therefore arranged the forces in this manner. 6 And we are told that Catulus himself also made a similar statement in defence of his conduct in the battle, and accused Marius of great malice in his treatment of him.
[Mar. 25.7] As for the Cimbri, their foot-soldiers advanced slowly from their defences, with a depth equal to their front, for each side of their formation had an extent of thirty furlongs; 7 and their horsemen, fifteen thousand strong, rode out in splendid style, with helmets made to resemble the maws of frightful wild beasts or the heads of strange animals, which, with their towering crests of feathers, made their wearers appear taller than they really were; they were also equipped with breastplates of iron, and carried gleaming white shields. For hurling, each man had two lances; and at close quarters they used large, heavy swords.
[Mar. 26.1] 26 1 At this time, however, they did not charge directly upon the Romans, but swerved to the right and tried to draw them along gradually until they got them between themselves and their infantry, which was drawn up on their left. The Roman commanders perceived the crafty design, but did not succeed in holding their soldiers back; for one of them shouted that the enemy was taking to flight, and then all set out to pursue them. 2 Meanwhile the infantry of the Barbarians came on to the attack like a vast sea in motion. Then Marius, after washing his hands, lifted them to heaven and vowed a hecatomb to the gods; Catulus also in like manner lifted his hands and vowed that he would consecrate the fortune of that day. It is said, too, that Marius offered sacrifice, and that when the victims had been shown to him, he cried with a loud voice: “Mine is the victory.”
[Mar. 26.3] 3 After the attack had begun, however, an experience befell Marius which signified the divine displeasure, according to Sulla. For an immense cloud of dust was raised, as was to be expected, and the two armies were hidden from one another by it, so that Marius, when he first led his forces to the attack, missed the enemy, passed by their lines of battle, and moved aimlessly up and down the plain for some time. Meanwhile, as chance would have it, the Barbarians engaged fiercely with Catulus, and he and his soldiers, among whom Sulla says he himself was posted, bore the brunt of the struggle. 4 The Romans were favoured in the struggle, Sulla says, by the heat, and by the sun, which shone in the faces of the Cimbri. For the Barbarians were well able to endure cold, and had been brought up in shady and chilly regions, as I have said. They were therefore undone by the heat; they sweated profusely, breathed with difficulty, and were forced to hold their shields before their faces. For the battle was fought after the summer solstice, which falls, by Roman reckoning, three days before the new moon of the month now called August, but then Sextilis. 5 Moreover, the dust, by hiding the enemy, helped to encourage the Romans. For they could not see from afar the great numbers of the foe, but each one of them fell at a run upon the man just over against him, and fought him hand to hand, without having been terrified by the sight of the rest of the host. And their bodies were so inured to toil and so thoroughly trained that not a Roman was observed to sweat or pant, in spite of the great heat and the run with which they came to the encounter. This is what Catulus is said to have written in extolling his soldiers.
[Mar. 27.1] 27 1 The greatest number and the best fighters of the enemy were cut to pieces on the spot; for to prevent their ranks from being broken, those who fought in front were bound fast to one another with long chains which were passed through their belts. The fugitives, however, were driven back to their entrenchments, where the Romans beheld a most tragic spectacle. 2 The women, in black garments, stood at the waggons and slew the fugitives — their husbands or brothers or fathers, then strangled their little children and cast them beneath the wheels of the waggons or the feet of the cattle, and then cut their own throats. It is said that one woman hung dangling from the tip of a waggon-pole, with her children tied to either ankle; 3 while the men, for lack of trees, fastened themselves by the neck to the horns of the cattle, or to their legs, then plied the goad, and were dragged or trampled to death as the cattle dashed away. Nevertheless, in spite of such self-destruction, more than sixty thousand were taken prisoners; and those who fell were said to have been twice that number.
[Mar. 27.4] 4 Now, the enemy’s property became the booty of the soldiers of Marius, but the spoils of battle, the standards, and the trumpets, were brought, we are told, to the camp of Catulus; and Catulus relied chiefly upon this as a proof that the victory was won by his men. Furthermore, a dispute for the honour of the victory arose among the soldiers, as was natural, and the members of an embassy from Parma were chosen to act as arbitrators. These men the soldiers of Catulus conducted among the dead bodies of the enemy, which were clearly seen to have been pierced by their javelins; for these could be known by the name of Catulus which had been cut into the shaft. 5 However, the entire success was attributed to Marius, both on account of his former victory and of his superior rank. Above all, the people hailed him as the third founder of Rome, that peril which he had averted from the city was not less than that of the Gallic invasion; and all of them, as they made merry at home with their wives and children, would bring ceremonial offerings of food and libations of wine to Marius as well as to the gods, and they were insistent that he alone should celebrate both triumphs. 6 Marius, however, would not do this, but celebrated his triumph with Catulus, wishing to show himself a man of moderation after a course of so great good fortune. Perhaps, too, he was afraid of the soldiers, who were drawn up and ready, in case Catulus were deprived of his honour, to prevent Marius also from celebrating a triumph.
[Mar. 28.1] 28 1 Thus, then, his fifth consulship was coming to an end; but he was as eager for a sixth as another would have been for his first. He tried to win over the people by obsequious attentions, and yielded to the multitude in order to gain its favour, thus doing violence, not only to the dignity and majesty of his high office, but also to his own nature, since he wished to be a compliant man of the people when he was naturally at farthest remove from this. 2 In confronting a political crisis or the tumultuous throng, we are told, his ambition made him most timorous, and that undaunted firmness which he showed in battle forsook him when he faced the popular assemblies, so that he was disconcerted by the most ordinary praise or blame. And yet we are told that when he had bestowed citizenship upon as many as a thousand men of Camerinum for conspicuous bravery in the war, the act was held to be illegal and was impeached by some; to whom he replied that the clash of arms had prevented his hearing the voice of the law. 3 However, he appeared to be in greater fear and terror of the shouting in the popular assemblies. At any rate, while in war he had authority and power because his services were needed, yet in civil life his leadership was more abridged, and he therefore had recourse to the goodwill and favour of the multitude, not caring to be the best man if only he could be the greatest. 4 The consequence was that he came into collision with all the aristocrats. It was Metellus, however, whom he especially feared, a man who had experienced his ingratitude, and one whose genuine excellence made him the natural enemy of those who tried to insinuate themselves by devious methods into popular favour and sought to control the masses by pleasing them. Accordingly, he schemed to banish Metellus from the city. 5 For this purpose he allied himself with Saturninus and Glaucia, men of the greatest effrontery, who had a rabble of needy and noisy fellows at their beck and call, and with their assistance would introduce laws. He also stirred up the soldiery, got them to mingle with the citizens in the assemblies, and thus controlled a faction which could overpower Metellus. Then, according to Rutilius, who is generally a lover of truth and an honest man, but had a private quarrel with Marius, he actually got his sixth consulship by paying down large sums of money among the tribes, and by buying votes made Metellus lose his election to the office, and obtained as his colleague in the consulship Valerius Flaccus, who was more a servant than a colleague. 6 And yet the people had never bestowed so many consulships upon any other man except Corvinus Valerius. In the case of Corvinus, however, forty-five years are said to have elapsed between his first and his last consulship; where Marius, after his first consulship, ran through the other five without a break.
[Mar. 29.1] 29 1 In this last consulship particularly did Marius make himself hated, because he took part with Saturninus in many of his misdeeds. One of these was the murder of Nonius, whom Saturninus slew because he was a rival candidate for the tribuneship. Then, as tribune, Saturninus introduced his agrarian law, to which was added a clause providing that the senators should come forward and take oath that they would abide by whatsoever the people might vote and make no opposition to it. 2 In the senate Marius made pretence of opposing this part of the law, and declared that he would not take the oath, and that he thought no other sensible man would; for even if the law were not a bad one, it was an insult to the senate that it should be compelled to make such concessions, instead of making them under persuasion and of its own free will. He said this, however, not because it was his real mind, but that he might catch Metellus in the toils of a fatal trick. 3 For he himself regarded lying as part of a man’s excellence and ability, made no account of his agreements with the senators, and did not intend to keep them; whereas he knew that Metellus was a steadfast man, who thought with Pindar that “truth is the foundation of great excellence,” and he therefore wished to bind him beforehand by a statement to the senate that he would not take the oath, and then have his refusal to do so plunge him into a hatred on the part of the people that could never be removed. And this was what came to pass.
[Mar. 29.4] 4 For Metellus declared that he would not take the oath, and the senate broke up for a while; but after a few days Saturninus summoned the senators to the rostra and tried to force them to take the oath. When Marius came forward there was silence, and the eyes of all were fastened upon him. Then, bidding a long farewell to all his boastful and insincere expressions in the senate, he said his throat was not broad enough to pronounce an opinion once for all upon so important a matter, but that he would take the oath, and obey the law, if it was a law; adding this bit of sophistry as a cloak for his shame. 5 The people, then, delighted at his taking the oath, clapped their hands in applause, but the nobles were terribly dejected and hated Marius for his change of front. Accordingly, all the senators took the oath in order, through fear of the people, until the turn of Metellus came; but Metellus, although his friends earnestly entreated him to take the oath and not subject himself to the irreparable punishments which Saturninus proposed for those who should refuse, would not swerve from his purpose or take the oath, 6 but, adhering to his principles and prepared to suffer any evil rather than do a shameful deed, he left the forum, saying to those about him that to do a wrong thing was mean, and to do the right thing when there was no danger was any man’s way, but that to act honourably when it involved dangers was peculiarly the part of a good and true man. 7 Upon this, Saturninus got a vote passed that the consuls should proclaim Metellus interdicted from fire, water, and shelter; and the meanest part of the populace supported them and was ready to put the man to death. The best citizens, however, sympathised with Metellus and crowded hastily about him, but he would not allow a faction to be raised on his account, and departed from the city, following the dictates of prudence. 8 “For,” said he, “either matters will mend and the people will change their minds and I shall return at their invitation, or, if matters remain as they are, it is best that I should be away.” But what great goodwill and esteem Metellus enjoyed during his exile, and how he spent his time in philosophical studies at Rhodes, will be better told in his Life.
[Mar. 30.1] 30 1 And now Marius, who was forced, in return for this assistance, to look on quietly while Saturninus ran to extremes of daring and power, brought about unawares a mischief that was not to be cured, but made its way by arms and slaughter directly towards tyranny and subversion of the government. And since he stood in awe of the nobles, while he courted the favour of the multitude, he was led to commit an act of the utmost meanness and duplicity. 2 For when the leading men had come to him by night and were trying to incite him against Saturninus, without their knowledge he introduced Saturninus into the house by another door; then, pretending to both parties that he had a diarrhoea, he would run backwards and forwards in the house, now to the nobles and now to Saturninus, trying to irritate and bring them into collision. 3 However, when the senate and the knights began to combine and give utterance to their indignation, he led his soldiers into the forum, forced the insurgents to take refuge on the Capitol, and compelled them to surrender for lack of water. For he cut off the water-conduits; whereupon they gave up the struggle, called Marius, and surrendered themselves on what was called the public faith. 4 Marius did all he could to save the men, but it was of no avail, and when they came down into the forum they were put to death. This affair made Marius obnoxious alike to the nobles and to the people, and when the time for electing censors came he did not present himself as a candidate, although everyone expected that he would, but allowed other and inferior men to be elected, for fear that he would be defeated. However, he tried to put a good face upon his conduct by saying that he was unwilling to incur the hatred of many citizens by a severe examination into their lives and manners.
[Mar. 31.1] 31 1 When a decree was introduced recalling Metellus from exile, Marius opposed it strongly both by word and deed, but finding his efforts vain, at last desisted; and after the people had adopted the measure with alacrity, unable to endure the sight of Metellus returning, he set sail for Cappadocia and Galatia, ostensibly to make the sacrifices which he had vowed to the Mother of the Gods, but really having another reason for his journey which the people did not suspect. 2 He had, that is, no natural aptitude for peace or civil life, but had reached his eminence by arms. And now, thinking that his influence and reputation were gradually fading away because of his inactivity and quietude, he sought occasions for new enterprises. For he hoped that if he stirred up the kings of Asia and incited Mithridates to action, who was expected to make war upon Rome, he would at once be chosen to lead the Roman armies against him, and would fill the city with new triumphs, and his own house with Pontic spoils and royal wealth. 3 For this reason, though Mithridates treated him with all deference and respect, he would not bend or yield, but said: “O King, either strive to be stronger than Rome, or do her bidding without a word.” This speech startled the king, who had often heard the Roman speech, but then for the first time in all its boldness.
[Mar. 32.1] 32 1 On returning to Rome, he built a house for himself near the forum, either, as he himself said, because he was unwilling that those who paid their respects to him should have the trouble of coming a long distance, or because he thought that distance was the reason why he did not have larger crowds at his door than others. The reason, however, was not of this nature; it was rather his inferiority to others in the graces of intercourse and in political helpfulness, which caused him to be neglected, like an instrument of war in time of peace. 2 Of all those who eclipsed him in popular esteem he was most vexed and annoyed by Sulla, whose rise to power was due to the jealousy which the nobles felt towards Marius, and who was making his quarrels with Marius the basis of his political activity. And when Bocchus the Numidian, who had been designated an ally of the Romans, set up trophy-bearing Victories on the Capitol, and by their side gilded figures representing Jugurtha surrendered by him to Sulla, Marius was transported with rage and fury to see Sulla thus appropriating to himself the glory of his achievements, and was making preparations to tear down the votive offerings. 3 But Sulla too was furious, and civil dissension was just on the point of breaking out, when it was stopped by the Social War, which suddenly burst upon the city. That is, the most warlike and most numerous of the Italian peoples combined against Rome, and came within a little of destroying her supremacy, since they were not only strong in arms and men, but also had generals whose daring and ability were amazing and made them a match for the Romans.
[Mar. 33.1] 33 1 This war, which was varied in its events and most changeful in its fortunes, added much to Sulla’s reputation and power, but took away as much from Marius. For he was slow in making his attacks, and always given to hesitation and delay, whether it was that old age had quenched his wonted energy and fire (for he was now past his sixty-sixth year), or that, as he himself said, a feeling of shame led him to go beyond his powers in trying to endure the hardships of the campaign when his nerves were diseased and his body unfit for work. 2 However, even then he won a great victory in which he slew six thousand of the enemy; and he never allowed them to get a grip upon him, but even when he was hemmed about with trenches bided his time, and was not unduly irritated by their insults and challenges. We are told that Publius Silo, who had the greatest authority and power among the enemy, once said to him, “If thou art a great general, Marius, come down and fight it out with us”; to which Marius answer, “Nay, but do thou, if thou art a great general, force me to fight it out with you against my will.” 3 And at another time, when the enemy had given him an opportunity to attack them, but the Romans had played the coward, and both sides had withdrawn, he called an assembly of his soldiers and said to them: “I do not know whether to call the enemy or you the greater cowards; for they were not able to see your backs, nor you their napes.” At last, however, he gave up his command, on the ground that his infirmities made him quite incapable of exercising it.
[Mar. 34.1] 34 1 But when the Italians had at last made their submission, and many persons at Rome were suing for the command in the Mithridatic war, with the aid of the popular leaders, contrary to all expectation the tribune Sulpicius, a most audacious man, brought Marius forward and proposed to make him pro-consul in command against Mithridates. The people were divided in opinion, some preferring Marius, and others called for Sulla and bidding Marius go to the warm baths at Baiae and look out for his health, since he was worn out with old age and rheums, as he himself said. 2 For at Baiae, near Cape Misenum, Marius owned an expensive house, which had appointments more luxurious and effeminate than became a man who had taken active part in so many wars and campaigns. This house, we are told, Cornelia bought for seventy-five thousand drachmas and not long afterwards Lucius Lucullus purchased it for two million five hundred thousand. So quickly did lavish expenditure spring up, and so great an increase in luxury did life in the city take on. 3 Marius, however, showing a spirit of keen emulation that might have characterized a youth, shook off old age and infirmity and went down daily into the Campus Martius, where he exercised himself with the young men and showed that he was still agile in arms and capable of feats of horsemanship, although his bulk was not well set up in his old age, but ran to corpulence and weight.
[Mar. 34.4] 4 Some, then, were pleased to have him thus engaged, and would go down into the Campus and witness his emulation in competitive contests; but the better part were moved to pity at the sight of his greed and ambition, because, though he had risen from poverty to the greatest wealth and from obscurity to the highest place, he knew not how to set bounds to his good fortune, and was not content to be admired and enjoy quietly what he had, but as if in need of all things, and after winning triumphs and fame, 5 was setting out, with all his years upon him, for Cappadocia and the Euxine sea, to fight it out with Archelaüs and Neoptolemus, the satraps of Mithridates. And the justification for this which Marius offered was thought to be altogether silly; he said, namely, that he wished to take part personally in the campaign in order to give his son a military training.
[Mar. 35.1] 35 1 These things brought to a head the secret disease from which the state had long been suffering, and Marius found a most suitable instrument for the destruction of the commonwealth in the audacity of Sulpicius, who was in all things an admirer and an imitator of Saturninus, except that he charged him with timidity and hesitation in his political measures. 2 Sulpicius himself was not a man of hesitation, but kept six hundred of the Knights about him as a body-guard, which he called his anti-senate; he also made an attack with armed men upon the consuls as they were holding an assembly, and when one of them fled from the forum, Sulpicius seized his son and butchered him; Sulla, however, the other consul, as he was being pursued past the house of Marius, did what no one would have expected and burst into the house. His pursuers ran past the house and therefore missed him, and it is said that Marius himself sent him off safely by another door so that he came in haste to his camp. 3 But Sulla himself, in his Memoirs, says he did not fly for refuge to the house of Marius, but withdrew thither in order to consult with Marius about the step which Sulpicius was trying to force him to take (by surrounding him with drawn swords and driving him to the house of Marius), and that finally he went from there to the forum and rescinded the consular decree for the suspension of public business, as Sulpicius and his party demanded. 4 When this had been done, Sulpicius, who was now master of the situation, got the command conferred upon Marius by vote of the people; and Marius, who was making his preparations for departure, sent out two military tribunes to take over the command of Sulla’s army. Sulla, however, called upon his soldiers (who were no fewer than thirty-five thousand legionaries) to resent this, and led them forth against Rome. His soldiers also fell upon the tribunes whom Marius had sent and slew them.
[Mar. 35.5] 5 Marius, too, put to death many of Sulla’s friends in Rome, and proclaimed freedom to the slaves if they would fight on his side. It is said, however, that only three of them joined his ranks, and after a feeble resistance to Sulla’s entry into the city he was speedily driven out and took to flight. As soon as he had made his escape from the city his companions were scattered, and since it was dark, he took refuge at one of his farmsteads, called Solonium. 6 He also sent his son to get provisions from the estate of his father-in law, Mucius, which was not far off, while he himself went down to the coast at Ostia, where a friend of his, Numerius, had provided a vessel for him. Then, without waiting for his son, but taking his step-son Granius with him, he set sail. The younger Marius reached the estate of Mucius, but as he was getting supplies and packing them up, day overtook him and he did not altogether escape the vigilance of his enemies; for some horsemen came riding towards the place, moved by suspicion. 7 When the overseer of the farm saw them coming, he hid Marius in a waggon loaded with beans, yoked up his oxen, and met the horsemen as he was driving the waggon to the city. In this way young Marius was conveyed to the house of his wife, where he got what he wanted, and then by night came to the sea, boarded a ship that was bound for Africa, and crossed over.
[Mar. 36.1] 36 1 The elder Marius, after putting to sea, was borne by a favouring wind along the coast of Italy; but since he was afraid of one Geminius, who was a powerful man in Terracina and an enemy of his, he told his sailors to keep clear of Terracina. The sailors were willing enough to do as he wished, but the wind veered round and blew towards the shore, bringing in a heavy surge, and it was thought that the vessel would not hold out against the beating of the waves; besides, Marius was in a wretched plight from sea-sickness, and therefore they made their way, though with difficulty, to the coast near Circeii. 2 Then, as the storm was increasing and their provisions were failing, they landed from the vessel and wandered about. They had no definite object in view, but, as is usual in cases of great perplexity, sought always to escape the present evil as the most grievous, and fixed their hopes on the unknown future. For the land was their enemy, and the sea an enemy as well; they were afraid they might fall in with men, and they were afraid they might not fall in with men because they had no provisions. 3 However, late in the day they came upon a few herdsmen; these had nothing to give them in their need, but they recognized Marius and bade him go away as fast as he could; for a little while before numerous horsemen had been seen riding about there in search of him. 4 Thus at his wits’ end, and, what was worst of all, his companions fainting with hunger, he turned aside for the while from the road, plunged into a deep forest, and there spent the night in great distress. But the next day, compelled by want, and wishing to make use of his strength before it failed him altogether, he wandered along the shore, trying to encourage his companions, and begging them not to give up the struggle before his last hope could be realized, for which he was still reserving himself in reliance on ancient prophecies. 5 When, that is, he was quite young and living in the country, he had caught in his cloak a falling eagle’s nest, which had seven young ones in it; at sight of this, his parents were amazed, and made enquiries of the seers, who told them that their son would be most illustrious of men, and was destined to receive the highest command and power seven times.
[Mar. 36.6] 6 Some say that this really happened to Marius; but others say that those who heard the story from him at this time and during the rest of his flight, believed, and recorded it, though it was wholly fabulous. For, they say, an eagle does not lay more than two eggs at one time, and Musaeus also was wrong when, speaking of the eagle, he says:
[Mar. 36.6b] “Three indeed she layeth, and two hatcheth, but one only doth she feed.”
[Mar. 36.6c] However, that Marius, during his flight and in his extremest difficulties, often said that he should attain to a seventh consulship, is generally admitted.
[Mar. 37.1] 37 1 But presently, when they were about twenty furlongs distant from Minturnae, an Italian city, they saw from afar a troop of horsemen riding towards them, and also, as it chanced, two merchant vessels sailing along. Accordingly, with all the speed and strength they had, they ran down to the sea, threw themselves into the water, and began to swim to the ships. Granius and his party reached one of the ships and crossed over to the opposite island, 2 Aenaria by name; 2 Marius himself, who was heavy and unwieldy, two slaves with toil and difficulty held above water and put into the other ship, the horsemen being now at hand and calling out from the shore to the sailors either to bring the vessel to shore or to throw Marius overboard and sail whither they pleased. But since Marius supplicated them with tears in his eyes, the masters of the vessel, after changing their minds often in a short time, nevertheless replied to the horsemen that they would not surrender Marius. 3 The horsemen rode away in a rage, and the sailors, changing their plan again, put in towards the shore; and after casting anchor at the mouth of the Liris, where the river expands into a lake, they advised Marius to leave the vessel, take some food ashore with him, and recruit his strength after his hardships until a good wind for sailing should arise; this usually arose, they said, when the wind from the sea died away and a tolerably strong breeze blew from the marshes. Marius was persuaded to follow their advice; so the sailors carried him ashore, and he lay down in some grass, without the slightest thought of what was to come. 4 Then the sailors at once boarded their vessel, hoisted anchor, and took to flight, feeling that it was neither honourable for them to surrender Marius nor safe to rescue him. Thus, forsaken of all men, he lay a long time speechless on the shore, but recovered himself at last and tried to walk along, the lack of any path making his progress laborious. 5 He made his way through deep marshes and ditches full of mud and water, until he came to the hut of an old man who got his living from the water. At his feet Marius fell down and besought him to save and help a man who, in case he escaped his present perils, would recompense him beyond all his hopes. Then the man, who either knew Marius from of old or saw that in his face which won the regard due to superior rank, told him that if he merely wanted to rest, the cabin would suffice, but that if he wandering about trying to escape pursuers, he could be hidden in a place that was more quiet. 6 Marius begged that this might be done, and the man took him to the marsh, bade him crouch down in a hollow place by the side of the river, and threw over him a mass of reeds and other material which was light enough to cover without injuring him.
[Mar. 38.1] 38 1 Not much time had elapsed, however, when a din and tumult at the hut fell upon the ears of Marius. For Geminius had sent a number of men from Terracina in pursuit of him, some of whom had chanced to come to the old man’s hut, and were frightening and berating him for having received and hidden an enemy of Rome. 2 Marius therefore rose from his hiding-place, stripped off his clothes, and threw himself into the thick and muddy water of the marsh. Here he could not elude the men who were in search of him, led him naked to Minturnae, and handed him over to the magistrates there. Now, word had already been sent to every city that Marius was to be pursued by the authorities and killed by his captors. 3 But nevertheless, the magistrates decided to deliberate on the matter first; so they put Marius for safe-keeping in the house of a woman named Fannia, who was thought to be hostile to him on account of an ancient grievance.
[Mar. 38.4] Fannia, that is, had been married to Titinnius; but she had separated herself from him and demanded back her dowry, which was considerable. Her husband, however, had accused her of adultery; and Marius, who was serving in his sixth consulship, had presided over the trial. 4 When the case was pleaded, and it appeared that Fannia had been a dissolute woman, and that her husband had known this and yet had taken her to wife and lived with her a long time, Marius was disgusted with both of them, and decreed that the husband should pay back his wife’s dowry, while at the same time he imposed upon the woman, as a mark of infamy, a fine of four coppers.
[Mar. 38.5] 5 However, at the time of which I speak, Fannia did not act like a woman who had been wronged, but when she saw Marius, she put far from her all resentment, cared for him as well as she could, and tried to encourage him. Marius commended her, and said he was of good courage; for an excellent sign had been given him. And this sign was as follows.
[Mar. 38.6] When, as he was led along, he had come to the house of Fannia, the door flew open and an ass ran out, in order to get a drink at a spring that flowed hard by; 6 with a saucy and exultant look at Marius the animal at first stopped in front of him, and then, giving a magnificent bray, went frisking past him triumphantly. From this Marius drew an omen and concluded that the Deity was indicating a way of escape for him by sea rather than by land; for the ass made no account of its dry fodder, but turned from that to the water.
[Mar. 38.6b] After explaining this to Fannia, Marius lay down to rest alone, after ordering the door of the apartment to be closed.
[Mar. 39.1] 39 1 Upon deliberation, the magistrates and councillors of Minturnae decided not to delay, but to put Marius to death. No one of the citizens, however, would undertake the task, so a horseman, either a Gaul or a Cimbrian (for the story is told both ways), took a sword and went into the room where Marius was. 2 Now, that part of the room where Marius happened to be lying had not a very good light, but was gloomy, and we are told that to the soldier the eyes of Marius seemed to shoot out a strong flame, and that a loud voice issued from the shadows saying, “Man, does thou dare to slay Caius Marius?” At once, then, the Barbarian fled from the room, threw his sword down on the ground, and dashed out of doors, with this one cry: “I cannot kill Caius Marius.” 3 Consternation reigned, of course, and then came pity, a change of heart, and self-reproach for having come to so unlawful and ungrateful a decision against a man who had been the saviour of Italy, and who ought in all decency to be helped. “So, then,” the talk ran, “let him go where he will as an exile, to suffer elsewhere his allotted fate. And let us pray that the gods may not visit us with their displeasure for casting Marius out of our city in poverty and rags.” Moved by such considerations, they rushed into his room in a body, surrounded him, and began to lead him forth to the sea. 4 But although this one and that one were eager to do him some service and all made what haste they could, still there was delay. For the grove of Marica, as it was called, which was held in veneration, and from which nothing was permitted to be carried out that had ever been carried in, lay between them and the sea as they were going, and if they went round it they must needs lose time. At last, however, one of the older men cried out and said that no path could forbid men’s steps and passage if it were the path of safety for Marius. And the speaker himself was the first to take some of the things that were being carried to the ship and pass through the holy place.
[Mar. 40.1] 40 1 Everything was speedily provided through such readiness as this, and a certain Belaeus furnished a ship for Marius. Belaeus afterwards had a painting made representing these scenes, and dedicated it in the temple at the spot where Marius embarked and put to sea. Favoured by the wind he was borne along by chance to the island of Aenaria, where he found Granius and the rest of his friends, and set sail with them for Africa. 2 But their supply of fresh water failed, and they were compelled to touch at Erycina in Sicily. In this neighbourhood, as it chanced, the Roman quaestor was on the watch, and almost captured Marius himself as he landed; he did kill about sixteen of his men who came ashore for water. Marius therefore put out to sea with all speed and crossed to the island of Meninx, where he first learned that his son had come off safely with Cethegus, and that they were on their way to Iampsas the king of Numidia, intending to ask his aid. 3 At this news Marius was a little refreshed, and made bold to push on from the island to the neighbourhood of Carthage.
[Mar. 40.4] The Roman governor of Africa at this time was Sextilius, a man who had received neither good nor ill at the hands of Marius, but whom, as it was expected, pity alone would move to give him aid. Hardly, however, had Marius landed with a few companions, when an official met him, stood directly in front of him, and said: “Sextilius the governor forbids thee, Marius, to set foot in Africa; and if thou disobeyest, he declares that he will uphold the decrees of the senate and treat thee as an enemy of Rome.” 4 When he heard this, Marius was rendered speechless by grief and indignation, and for a long time kept quiet, looking sternly at the official. Then, when asked by him what he had to say, and what answer he would make to the governor, he answered with a deep groan: “Tell him, then, that thou hast seen Caius Marius a fugitive, seated amid the ruins of Carthage.” And it was not inaptly that he compared the fate of that city with his own reversal of fortune.
[Mar. 40.5] 5 Meanwhile Iampsas the king of Numidia, hesitating which course to take, did indeed treat the younger Marius and his party with respect, but always had some excuse for detaining them when they wished to go away, and clearly had no good end in view in thus postponing their departure. However, something occurred which, though not at all extraordinary, led to their escape. The younger Marius, that is, being a handsome fellow, one of the concubines of the king was pained to see him treated unworthily, and this feeling of compassion ripened into love. 6 At first, then, Marius repelled the woman’s advances; but when he saw that there was no other way of escape for him and his friends, and that her behaviour was based on a genuine affection, he accepted her favours, whereupon she helped him in getting off, and he ran away with his friends and made his escape to his father. After father and son had embraced one another, they walked along the sea-shore, and there they saw some scorpions fighting, which the elder Marius regarded as a bad omen. 7 At once, therefore, they boarded a fishing-boat and crossed over to the island of Cercina, which was not far distant from the mainland; and scarcely had they put out from land when horsemen sent by the king were seen riding towards the spot whence they had sailed. It would seem that Marius never escaped a greater peril than this.
[Mar. 41.1] 41 1 But in Rome, Sulla was heard of as waging war with the generals of Mithridates in Boeotia, and the consuls quarrelled and were resorting to arms. A battle took place, Octavius won the day, cast out Cinna, who was trying to be too arbitrary in his rule, and put Cornelius Merula in his place as consul; whereupon Cinna assembled a force from the other parts of Italy and made war anew upon Octavius and his colleague. 2 When Marius heard of these things, he thought best to sail thither as fast as he could; so taking with him from Africa some Moorish horsemen, and some Italians who had wandered thither, the number of both together not exceeding a thousand, he put to sea. Putting in at Telamon in Tyrrhenia, and landing there, he proclaimed freedom to the slaves; he also won over the neighbourhood, who came flocking down to the sea attracted by his fame, and in a few days had assembled a large force and manned forty ships.
[Mar. 41.3] 3 And now, knowing that Octavius was a most excellent man and wished to rule in the justest way, but that Cinna was distrusted by Sulla and was making war upon the established constitution, he determined to join Cinna with his forces. Accordingly he sent to Cinna and offered to obey him in everything as consul. Cinna accepted his offer, named him pro-consul, and sent him the fasces and other insignia of the office. 4 Marius, however, declared that these decorations were not suited to his fortunes, and in mean attire, his hair uncut since the day of his flight, being now over seventy years of age, came with slow steps to meet the consul. For he wished that men should pity him; but with his appeal for compassion there was mingled the look that was natural to him and now more terrifying than ever, and through his downcast mien there flashed a spirit which had been, not humbled, but made savage by his reverses.
[Mar. 42.1] 42 1 After greeting Cinna and presenting himself to Cinna’s soldiers, he at once began his work and greatly changed the posture of affairs. In the first place, by cutting off the grain-ships with his fleet and plundering the merchants, he made himself master of the city’s supplies; next, he sailed to the maritime cities and took them; and finally, he seized Ostia itself, which was treacherously surrendered to him, plundering the property there and killing most of its inhabitants, and by throwing a bridge across the river completely cut off the enemy from such stores as might come by sea. 2 Then he set out and marched with his army towards the city, and occupied the hill called Janiculum. Octavius damaged his own cause, not so much through lack of skill, as by a too scrupulous observance of the laws, wherein he unwisely neglected the needs of the hour. For though many urged him to call the slaves to arms under promise of freedom, he said he would not make bondmen members of the state from which he was trying to exclude Marius in obedience to the laws. 3 Moreover, when Metellus (son of the Metellus who had commanded in Africa and had been banished through the intrigues of Marius) came to Rome, it was thought that he was far superior to Octavius as a general, and the soldiers forsook Octavius and came to him, entreating him to take the command and save the city; for they would make a good fight, they said, and win the victory if they got a tried and efficient leader. Metellus, however, was indignant at them and bade them go back to the consul; whereupon they went off to the enemy. Metellus also left the city, despairing of its safety.
[Mar. 42.4] 4 But Octavius was persuaded by certain Chaldaeans, sacrificers, and interpreters of the Sibylline books to remain in the city, on the assurance that matters would turn out well. For it would seem that this man, although he was in other ways the most sensible man in Rome, and most careful to maintain the dignity of the consular office free from undue influence in accordance with the customs of the country and its laws, which he regarded as unchangeable ordinances, had a weakness in this direction, since he spent more time with charlatans and seers than with men who were statesmen and soldiers. 5 This man, then, before Marius entered the city, was dragged down from the rostra by men who had been sent on before, and butchered; and we are told that a Chaldaean chart was found in his bosom after he had been slain. Now, it seems very unaccountable that, of two most illustrious commanders, Marius should succeed by regarding divinations, but Octavius should be ruined.
[Mar. 43.1] 43 1 Matters being at this pass, the senate met and sent a deputation to Cinna and Marius, begging them to enter the city and spare the citizens. Cinna, accordingly, as consul, seated on his chair of office, received the embassy and gave them a kindly answer; but Marius, standing by the consul’s chair without speaking a word, made it clear all the while, by the heaviness of his countenance and the gloominess of his look, that he would at once fill the city with slaughter. 2 After the conference was over they moved on towards the city. Cinna entered it with a body-guard, but Marius halted at the gates and angrily dissembled, saying that he was an exile and was excluded from the country by the law, and if his presence there was desired, the vote which cast him out must be rescinded by another vote, since, indeed, he was a law-abiding man and was returning to a free city. 3 So the people were summoned to the forum; and before three or four of the tribes had cast their votes, he threw aside his feigning and all that petty talk about being an exile, and entered the city, having as his body-guard a picked band of the slaves who had flocked to his standard, to whom he had given the name of Bardyaei. These fellows killed many of the citizens at a word of command from him, many, too, at a mere nod; and at last, when Ancharius, a man of senatorial and praetorial dignity, met Marius and got no salutation from him, they struck him down with their swords before the face of their master. 4 After this, whenever anybody else greeted Marius and got no salutation or greeting in return, this of itself was a signal for the man’s slaughter in the very street, so that even the friends of Marius, to a man, were full of anguish and horror whenever they drew near to greet him. So many were slain that at last Cinna’s appetite for murder was dulled and sated; but Marius, whose anger increased day by day and thirsted for blood, kept on killing all whom he held in any suspicion whatsoever. 5 Every road and every city was filled with men pursuing and hunting down those who sought to escape or had hidden themselves. Moreover, the trust men placed in the ties of hospitality and friendship were found to be no security against the strokes of Fortune; for few there were, all told, who did not betray to the murderers those who had taken refuge with them. 6 All the more worthy of praise and admiration, then, was the behaviour of the slaves of Cornutus. They concealed their master in his house; then they hung up by the neck one of the many dead bodies that lay about, put a gold ring on its finger, and showed it to the guards of Marius, after which they decked it out as if it were their master’s body and gave it burial. Nobody suspected the ruse, and thus Cornutus escaped notice and was conveyed by his slaves into Gaul.
[Mar. 44.1] 44 1 Marcus Antonius also, the orator, found a faithful friend, but it did not save him. For this friend, who was a poor plebeian and had received into his house a leading man of Rome, whom he wished to entertain as well as he could, sent a slave to a neighbouring innkeeper to get some wine. As the slave tasted the wine more carefully than usual and ordered some of better quality, the innkeeper asked him what was the reason that he did not buy the new and ordinary wine as usual, instead of wanting some that was choice and expensive. 2 The slave, in his great simplicity, conscious that he was dealing with an old acquaintance, told him that his master was entertaining Marcus Antonius, who was concealed at his house. As soon as the slave had gone home, the innkeeper, who was an impious and pestilent fellow, hastened in person to find Marius, who was already at supper, and on being introduced, promised to betray Antonius to him. 3 When Marius heard this, as we are told, a loud cry burst from his lips and he clapped his hands for joy; he actually came near springing from his seat and hurrying to the place himself, but his friends restrained him; so he sent Annius and some soldiers with him, ordering them to bring him the head of Antonius with all speed. Accordingly, when they were come to the house, Annius stopped at the door, while the soldiers climbed the stairs and entered the room. But when they beheld Antonius, every man began to urge and push forward a companion to do the murder instead of himself. 4 So indescribable, however, as it would seem, was the grace and charm of his words, that when Antonius began to speak and pray for his life, not a soldier had the hardihood to lay hands on him or even to look him in the face, but they all bent their heads down and wept. Perceiving that there was some delay, Annius went upstairs, and saw that Antonius was pleading and that the soldiers were abashed and enchanted by his words; so he cursed his men, and running up to Antonius, with his own hands cut off his head.
[Mar. 44.5] 5 Again, the friends of Catulus Lutatius, who had been a colleague of Marius in the consulship, and with him had celebrated a triumph over the Cimbri, interceded with him and begged Marius to spare his life; but the only answer they could get was: “He must die.” Catulus therefore shut himself up in a room, lighted up a great quantity of charcoal, and was suffocated.
[Mar. 44.6] 6 But headless trunks thrown into the streets and trampled under foot excited no pity, though everybody trembled and shuddered at the sight. The people were most distressed however, by the wanton licence of the Bardyaei, as they were called, who butchered fathers of families in their houses, outraged their children, violated their wives, and could not be checked in their career of rapine and murder until Cinna and Sertorius, after taking counsel together, fell upon them as they were asleep in their camp, and transfixed them all with javelins.
[Mar. 45.1] 45 1 Meanwhile, as if a change of wind were coming on, messengers arrived from all quarters with reports that Sulla had finished the war with Mithridates, had recovered the provinces, and was sailing for home with a large force. This gave a brief stay and a slight cessation to the city’s unspeakable evils, since men supposed that the war was all but upon them. Accordingly, Marius was elected consul for the seventh time, and assuming office on the Calends of January, which is the first day of the year, he had a certain Sextus Lucinus thrown down the Tarpeian rock. This was thought to be a most significant portent of the evils that were once more to fall upon the partisans of Marius and upon the city.
[Mar. 45.2] 2 But Marius himself, now worn out with toils, deluged, as it were, with anxieties, and wearied, could not sustain his spirits, which shook within him as he again faced the overpowering thought of a new war, of fresh struggles, of terrors known by experience to be dreadful, and of utter weariness. He reflected, too, that it was not Octavius or Merula in command of a promiscuous throng and a seditious rabble against whom he was now to run the hazard of war, but that the famous Sulla was coming against him, the man who had once ejected him from the country, and had now shut Mithridates up to the shores of the Euxine Sea. 3 Tortured by such reflections, and bringing into review his long wandering, his flights, and his perils, as he was driven over land and sea, he fell into a state of dreadful despair, and was a prey to nightly terrors and harassing dreams, wherein he would ever seem to hear a voice saying: —
[Mar. 45.2b] “Dreadful, indeed, is the lions’ lair, even though it be empty.”
[Mar. 45.4] And since above all things he dreaded the sleepless nights, he gave himself up to drinking-bouts and drunkenness at unseasonable hours and in a manner unsuited to his years, trying thus to induce sleep as a way of escape from his anxious thoughts. 4 And finally, when one came with tidings from the sea, fresh terrors fell upon him, partly because he feared the future, and partly because he was wearied to satiety by the present, so that it needed only a slight impulse to throw him into a pleurisy, as Poseidonius the philosopher relates, who says that he went in personally and conversed with Marius on the subjects of his embassy after Marius had fallen ill. 5 But a certain Caius Piso, an historian, relates that Marius, while walking about with his friends after supper, fell to talking about the events of his life, beginning with his earliest days, and after recounting his frequent reversals of fortune, from good to bad and from bad to good, said that it was not the part of a man of sense to trust himself to Fortune any longer; and after this utterance bade his friends farewell, kept his bed for seven days consecutively, and so died. 6 Some, however, say that his ambitious nature was completely revealed during his illness by his being swept into a strange delusion. He thought that he had the command in the Mithridatic war, and then, just as he used to do in his actual struggles, he would indulge in all sorts of attitudes and gestures, accompanying them with shrill cries and frequent calls to battle. 7 So fierce and inexorable was the passion for directing that war which had been instilled into him by his envy and lust of power. And therefore, though he had lived to be seventy years old, and was the first man to be elected consul for the seventh time, and was possessed of a house and wealth which would have sufficed for many kingdoms at once, he lamented his fortune, in that he was dying before he had satisfied and completed his desires.
[Mar. 46.1] 46 1 Plato, however, when he was now at the point of death, lauded his guardian genius and Fortune because, to begin with, he had been born a man and not an irrational animal; again, because he was a Greek and not a Barbarian; and still again, because his birth had fallen in the times of Socrates. And indeed they say that Antipater of Tarsus, when he was in like manner near his end and was enumerating the blessings of his life, did not forget to mention his prosperous voyage from home to Athens, just as though he thought that every gift of a benevolent Fortune called for great gratitude, and kept it to the last in his memory, which is the most secure storehouse of blessings for a man. 3 Unmindful and thoughtless persons, on the contrary, let all that happens to them slip away as time goes on; therefore, since they do not hold or keep anything, they are always empty of blessings, but full of hopes, and are looking away to the future while they neglect the present. 4 And yet the future may be prevented by Fortune, while the present cannot be taken away; nevertheless these men cast aside the present gift of Fortune as something alien to them, while they dream of the future and its uncertainties. And this is natural. For they assemble and heap together the external blessings of life before reason and education have enabled them to build any foundation and basement for these things, and therefore they cannot satisfy the insatiable appetite of their soul.
[Mar. 46.5] 5 So, then, Marius died, seventeen days after entering upon his seventh consulship. And immediately Rome was filled with great rejoicing and a confident hope that she was rid of a grievous tyranny; but in a few days the people perceived that they had got a new and vigorous master in exchange for the old one; such bitterness and cruelty did the younger Marius display, putting to death the best and most esteemed citizens. 6 He got the reputation of being bold and fond of danger in fighting his enemies, and in the beginning was called a son of Mars; but his deeds soon showed what he really was, and he was called instead a son of Venus. And finally he was shut up in Praeneste by Sulla, and after many vain attempts to save his life, when the city was captured and he could not escape, he slew himself.

## Lysander

[Lys. 1.1] 433 1 1 The treasury of the Acanthians at Delphi bears this inscription: “Brasidas and the Acanthians, with spoil from the Athenians.” For this reason many think that the marble figure standing within the edifice, by the door, is a statue of Brasidas. But it really represents Lysander, with his hair very long, after the ancient custom, and growing a generous beard. 2 For it is not true, as some state, that because the Argives, after their great defeat, shaved their heads for sorrow, the Spartans, in contrary fashion, let their hair grow long in exultation over their victory; nor was it because the Bacchiadae, when they fled from Corinth to Lacedaemon, looked mean and unsightly from having shaved their heads, that the Spartans, on their part, became eager to wear their hair long; but this custom also goes back to Lycurgus. 434 And he is reported to have said that a fine head of hair makes the handsome more comely to look upon, and the ugly more terrible.
[Lys. 2.1] 2 1 The father of Lysander, Aristocleitus, is said to have been of the lineage of the Heracleidae, though not of the royal family. But Lysander was reared in poverty, and showed himself as much as any man conformable to the customs of his people; of a manly spirit, too, and superior to every pleasure, excepting only that which their good deeds bring to those who are successful and honoured. To this pleasure it is no disgrace for the youth in Sparta to succumb. 2 Indeed, from the very first they wish their boys to be sensitive towards public opinion, distressed by censure, and exalted by praise; and he who is insensible and stolid in these matters, is looked down upon as without ambition for excellence, and a cumberer of the ground. Ambition, then, and the spirit of emulation, were firmly implanted in him by his Laconian training, and no great fault should be found with his natural disposition on this account. 3 But he seems to have been naturally subservient to men of power and influence, beyond what was usual in a Spartan, and content to endure an arrogant authority for the sake of gaining his ends, a trait which some hold to be no small part of political ability. And Aristotle, when he sets forth that great natures, like those of Socrates and Plato and Heracles, have a tendency to melancholy, writes also that Lysander, not immediately, but when well on in years, was a prey to melancholy.
[Lys. 2.4] 4 But what is most peculiar in him is that, though he bore poverty well, and though he was never mastered nor even corrupted by money, yet he filled his country full of wealth and the love of wealth, and made her cease to be admired for not admiring wealth, importing as he did an abundance of gold and silver after the war with Athens, although he kept not a single drachma for himself. 5 And when Dionysius the tyrant sent his daughters some costly tunics of Sicilian make, he would not receive them, saying he was afraid they would make his daughters look more ugly. But a little later, when he was sent as ambassador to the same tyrant from the same city, and was presented by him with two robes, and ordered to choose which of them he would, and carry it to his daughter, he said that she could choose better herself, and went off with both of them.
[Lys. 3.1] 3 1 The Peloponnesian war had now been carried on for a long time, and after their disaster in Sicily it was expected that the Athenians would straightway lose their control of the sea, and presently give up the struggle altogether. But Alcibiades, returning from exile and taking the command, wrought a great change, and made his countrymen again a match for their enemies by sea. 2 The Lacedaemonians, accordingly, were frightened again, and summoning up fresh zeal for the war, which required, as they thought, an able leader and a more powerful armament, sent out Lysander to take command upon the sea. When he came to Ephesus, he found the city well disposed to him and very zealous in the Spartan cause, although it was then in a low state of prosperity and in danger of becoming utterly barbarized by the admixture of Persian customs, since it was enveloped by Lydia, and the King’s generals made it their headquarters. 3 He therefore pitched his camp there, and ordered the merchant vessels from every quarter to land their cargoes there, and made preparations for the building of triremes. Thus he revived the traffic of their harbours, and the business of their market, and filled their houses and workshops with profits, so that from that time on, and through his efforts, the city had hopes of achieving the stateliness and grandeur which it now enjoys.
[Lys. 4.1] 4 1 When he learned that Cyrus, the King’s son, was come to Sardis, 435 he went up to confer with him and to accuse Tissaphernes, who, though he was commissioned to aid the Lacedaemonians and drive the Athenians from the sea, was thought to be remiss in his duty, through the efforts of Alcibiades, showing lack of zeal, and destroying the efficiency of the fleet by the meagre subsidies which he gave. 2 Now Cyrus was well pleased that Tissaphernes, who was a base man and privately at feud with him, should be accused and maligned. By this means, then, as well as by his behaviour in general, Lysander made himself agreeable, and by the submissive deference of his conversation, above all else, he won the heart of the young prince, and roused him to prosecute the war with vigour. 3 At a banquet which Cyrus gave him as he was about to depart, the prince begged him not to reject the tokens of his friendliness, but to ask plainly for whatever he desired, since nothing whatsoever would be refused him. “Since, then,” said Lysander in reply, “thou art so very kind, I beg and entreat thee, Cyrus, to add an obol to the pay of my sailors, that they may get four obols instead of three.” 4 Cyrus, accordingly, delighted with his public spirit, gave him ten thousand darics, out of which he added the obol to the pay of his seamen, and, by the renown thus won, soon emptied the ships of his enemies. For most of their seamen came over to those who offered higher pay, and those who remained were listless and mutinous, and gave daily trouble to their officers. 5 However, although he had thus injured and weakened his enemies, Lysander shrank from a naval battle, through fear of Alcibiades, who was energetic, had a greater number of ships, and in all his battles by land and sea up to that time had come off victorious.
[Lys. 5.1] 5 1 But after this, Alcibiades sailed away from Samos to Phocaea, leaving Antiochus, his pilot, in command of the fleet; and Antiochus, as if in bold mockery of Lysander, put in to the harbour of Ephesus with two triremes, and rowed ostentatiously past his ships, as they lay drawn up on shore, with noise and laughter. Lysander was incensed, and launching at first only a few of his triremes, pursued him; then seeing that the Athenians were coming to the rescue, he manned others, and at last the action became general. 2 Lysander was victorious, too, captured fifteen triremes, and set up a trophy. Thereupon the people of Athens, flying into a passion, deposed Alcibiades from his command and finding himself slighted and abused by the soldiers at Samos, he left the camp and sailed off to the Chersonese. This battle, then, although actually not a great one, was made memorable by its bearing on the fortunes of Alcibiades.
[Lys. 5.3] 3 Lysander now summoned from their various cities to Ephesus men whom he saw to be most eminent for confidence and daring, and sowed in their minds the seeds of the revolutionary decadarchies afterwards instituted by him, urging and inciting them to form political clubs in their several cities, and apply themselves to public affairs, assuring them that as soon as the Athenian empire was destroyed, they could rid themselves of their democracies and become themselves supreme in power. 4 Moreover, by actual benefits he gave them all a confidence in this future, promoting those who were already his friends and allies to large enterprises and honours and commands, and taking a share himself in their injustice and wickedness in order to gratify their rapacity. Therefore all attached themselves to him, expecting to attain all their highest ambitions if only he remained in power. 5 Therefore, too, they neither looked kindly upon Callicratidas at the first, when he came to succeed Lysander in the admiralty, nor afterwards, when he had shown by manifest proofs that he was the justest and noblest of men, 436 were they pleased with the manner of his leadership, which had a certain Doric simplicity and sincerity. They did, indeed, admire his virtue, as they would the beauty of a hero’s statue; but they yearned for the zealous support of Lysander, and missed the interest which he took in the welfare of his partisans, so that when he sailed away they were dejected and shed tears.
[Lys. 6.1] 6 1 Lysander made these men yet more disaffected towards Callicratidas. He also sent back to Sardis what remained of the money which Cyrus had given him for the navy, bidding Callicratidas ask for it himself, if he wished, and see to the maintenance of his soldiers. 2 And finally, as he sailed away, he called Callicratides to witness that the fleet which he handed over to him was in command of the sea. But he, wishing to prove the emptiness and vanity of this ambitious boast, said: “In that case, keep Samos on the left, sail to Miletus, and there hand the triremes over to me; surely we need not fear to sail past the enemy at Samos if we are masters of the sea.” 3 To this Lysander answered that Callicratidas, and not he, was in command of the ships, and sailed off to Peloponnesus, leaving Callicratidas in great perplexity. For neither had he brought money from home with him, nor could he bear to lay the cities under forced contribution when they were already in an evil plight. 4 The only course left, therefore, was to go to the doors of the King’s generals, as Lysander had done, and ask for money. For this he was of all men least fitted by nature, being of a free and lofty spirit, and one who thought any and every defeat of Greeks at the hands of Greeks more becoming to them than visits of flattery to the houses of Barbarians, who had much gold, but nothing else worth while.
[Lys. 6.5] 5 Constrained, however, by his necessities, he went up into Lydia, proceeded at once to the house of Cyrus, and ordered word to be sent in that Callicratidas the admiral was come and wished to confer with him. And when one of the door-keepers said to him: “But Cyrus is not at leisure now, Stranger, for he is at his wine”; Callicratidas replied with the utmost simplicity: “No matter, I will stand here and wait till he has had his wine.” 6 This time, then, he merely withdrew, after being taken for a rustic fellow and laughed at by the Barbarians. But when he was come a second time to the door and was refused admittance, he was indignant, and set off for Ephesus, invoking many evils upon those who first submitted to the mockery of the Barbarians and taught them to be insolent because of their wealth, 7 and swearing roundly to the bystanders that as soon as he got back to Sparta, he would do all he could to reconcile the Greeks with one another, in order that they might themselves strike fear into the Barbarians, and cease soliciting their power against each other.
[Lys. 7.1] 7 1 But Callicratidas, after cherishing purposes worthy of Lacedaemon, and showing himself worthy to compete with the most eminent of the Greeks by reason of his righteousness, magnanimity, and valour, not long afterwards lost the sea-fight at Arginusae, and vanished from among men. Then, their cause declining, the allies sent an embassy to Sparta and asked that Lysander be made admiral, declaring that they would grapple much more vigorously with the situation if he were their commander. 2 Cyrus also sent to make the same request. Now the Lacedaemonians had a law forbidding that the same man should be admiral twice, and yet they wished to gratify their allies; they therefore invested a certain Aracus with the title of admiral, and sent out Lysander as vice-admiral, nominally, but really with supreme power. So he came out, as most of those who had political power and influence in the cities had long desired, for they expected to become still stronger by his aid when the popular governments had been utterly overthrown; 3 but to those who loved simplicity and nobility 437 in the character of their leaders, Lysander, compared with Callicratidas, seemed to be unscrupulous and subtle, a man who tricked out most of what he did in war with the varied hues of deceit, extolling justice if it was at the same time profitable, but if not, adopting the advantageous as the honourable course, and not considering truth as inherently better than falsehood, but bounding his estimate of either by the needs of the hour. 4 Those who demanded that the descendants of Heracles should not wage war by deceit he held up to ridicule, saying that “where the lions’ skin will not reach, it must be patched out with the fox’s.”
[Lys. 8.1] 8 1 Of such a sort were his dealings with Miletus, according to the record. For when his friends and allies, whom he had promised to aid in overthrowing the democracy and expelling their opponents, changed their minds and became reconciled to their foes, openly he pretended to be pleased and to join in the reconciliation; but in secret he reviled and abused them, and incited them to fresh attacks upon the multitude. 2 And when he perceived that the uprising was begun, he quickly came up and entered the city, where he angrily rebuked the first conspirators whom he met, and set upon them roughly, as though he were going to punish them, but ordered the rest of the people to be of good cheer and to fear no further evil now that he was with them. 3 But in this he was playing a shifty part, wishing the leading men of the popular party not to fly, but to remain in the city and be slain. And this was what actually happened; for all who put their trust in him were slaughtered.
[Lys. 8.4] Furthermore, there is a saying of Lysander’s, recorded by Androcleides, which makes him guilty of the greatest recklessness in the matter of oaths. 4 It was his policy, according to this authority, “to cheat boys with knuckle-bones, but men with oaths,” thus imitating Polycrates of Samos; not a proper attitude in a general towards a tyrant, nor yet a Laconian trait to treat the gods as one’s enemies are treated, nay, more outrageously still; since he who overreaches his enemy by means of an oath, confesses that he fears that enemy, but despises God.
[Lys. 9.1] 9 1 Well, then, Cyrus summoned Lysander to Sardis, and gave him this, and promised him that, ardently protesting, to gratify him, that he would actually squander his own fortune, if his father gave him nothing for the Spartans; and if all else failed, he said he would cut up the throne on which he sat when giving audience, a throne covered with gold and silver. 2 And finally, as he was going up into Media to wait upon his father, he assigned to Lysander the tribute of the cities, and entrusted his own government to him; and embracing him in farewell, and begging him not to fight the Athenians at sea until he was come back, and promising to come back with many ships from Phoenicia and Cilicia, he set out to go up to the King.
[Lys. 9.3] Then Lysander, who could neither fight a naval battle on equal terms, nor remain idle with the large fleet at his disposal, put out to sea and reduced some of the islands, and touching at Aegina and Salamis, overran them. 3 Then he landed in Attica and saluted Agis, who came down in person from Deceleia to meet him, and displayed to the land forces there the strength of his fleet, with the mien of one who sailed where he pleased and was master of the sea. But on learning that the Athenians were pursuing him, he fled by another route through the islands to Asia.
[Lys. 9.4] 4 Finding the Hellespont unguarded, he himself attacked Lampsacus from the sea with his ships, while Thorax, co operating with the land forces, assaulted the walls. He took the city by storm, and gave it up to his soldiers to plunder. Meanwhile the Athenian fleet of a hundred and eighty triremes had just arrived at Elaeus in the Chersonese, 438 and learning that Lampsacus had fallen, they straightway put in at Sestos. 5 There they took in provisions, and then sailed along to Aegospotami, over against their enemies, who were still in station at Lampsacus. The Athenians were under the command of several generals, among whom was Philocles, the man who had recently persuaded the people to pass a decree that their prisoners of war should have the right thumb cut off, that they might not be able to wield a spear, though they might ply an oar.
[Lys. 10.1] 10 1 For the time being, then, all rested, expecting that on the morrow the fleets would engage. But Lysander was planning otherwise, and ordered his seamen and pilots, as though there would be a struggle at daybreak, to go on board their triremes in the early morning, and take their seats in order and in silence, awaiting the word of command, and that the land forces also, in the same manner, remain quietly in their ranks by the sea. 2 When the sun rose, however, and the Athenians sailed up with all their ships in line and challenged to battle, although he had his ships drawn up in line to meet them and fully manned before it was light, he did not put out from his position, but sending despatch-boats to the foremost of his ships, ordered them to keep quiet and remain in line, not getting into confusion nor sailing out to meet the enemy. 3 And so about midday when the Athenians sailed back, he did not allow his men to leave their ships until two or three triremes, which he sent to reconnoitre, came back, after seeing that the enemy had disembarked. On the following day this was done again, and on the third, and at last on the fourth, so that the Athenians became very bold and contemptuous, believing that their enemies were huddling together in fear.
[Lys. 10.4] 4 At this juncture, Alcibiades, who was living in his own fortress on the Chersonese, rode up to the Athenian army and censured the generals, first for having pitched their camp in a bad and even dangerous place on an open beach where there was no roadstead; and second, for the mistake of getting their provisions from distant Sestos, when they ought to sail round the coast 5 a little way to the harbour and city of Sestos, where they would be at a longer remove from their enemies, who lay watching them with an army commanded by a single man, the fear of whom led it to obey his every order promptly. These were the lessons he gave them, but they would not receive them, and Tydeus actually gave him an insolent answer, saying that he was not general now, but others.
[Lys. 11.1] 11 Alcibiades, accordingly, suspecting that some treachery was afoot among them, went away. But on the fifth day, when the Athenians had sailed over to the enemy and back again, as was now their wont, very carelessly and contemptuously, Lysander, as he sent out his reconnoitring ships, ordered their commanders, as soon as they saw that the Athenians had disembarked, to put about and row back with all speed, and when they were half way across, to hoist a brazen shield at the prow, as a signal for the onset. 2 And he himself sailed round and earnestly exhorted the pilots and trierarchs to keep all their crews at their post, sailors and soldiers alike, and as soon as the signal was given, to row with ardour and vigour against the enemy. When, therefore, the shield was hoisted on the lookout ships, and the trumpet on the admiral’s ship signalled the attack, the ships sailed forth, and the land forces ran their fastest along the shore to seize the promontory. 3 The distance between the two continents at this point is fifteen furlongs, and such was the zealous ardour of the rowers that it was quickly consumed.
[Lys. 11.4] Conon, the Athenian general, who was the first to see from the land the onset of the fleet, suddenly shouted orders to embark, and deeply stirred by the threatening disaster, called upon some, besought others, and forced others to man the triremes. 439 4 But his eager efforts were of no avail, since the men were scattered. For just as soon as they had disembarked, since they expected no trouble, some went to market, some walked about the country, some lay down to sleep in their tents, and some began to get their suppers ready, being as far as possible removed from any thought of what was to happen, through the inexperience of their commanders. 5 The shouts and splashing oars of the oncoming enemy were already heard, when Conon, with eight ships, sailed stealthily away, and making his escape, proceeded to Cyprus, to Evagoras; but the Peloponnesians fell upon the rest of the ships, some of which they took entirely empty, and others they disabled while their crews were still getting aboard.
[Lys. 11.6] And the men, coming up unarmed and in straggling fashion, perished at their ships, or if they fled by land, their enemies, who had disembarked, slew them. 6 Lysander took three thousand men prisoners, together with their generals, and captured the whole fleet, excepting the Paralus and the ships that had made their escape with Conon. So after plundering his enemy’s camp and taking their ships in tow, he sailed back to Lampsacus, to the sound of pipes and hymns of victory. He had wrought a work of the greatest magnitude with the least toil and effort, and had brought to a close in a single hour a war which, in length, and the incredible variety of its incidents and fortunes, surpassed all its predecessors. 7 Its struggles and issues had assumed ten thousand changing shapes, and it had cost Hellas more generals than all her previous wars together, and yet it was brought to a close by the prudence and ability of one man. Therefore some actually thought the result due to divine intervention.
[Lys. 12.1] 12 1 There were some who declared that the Dioscuri appeared as twin stars on either side of Lysander’s ship just as he was sailing out of the harbour against the enemy, and shone out over the rudder-sweeps. And some say also that the falling of the stone was a portent of this disaster; for according to the common belief, a stone of vast size had fallen from heaven at Aegospotami, and it is shown to this day by the dwellers in the Chersonese, who hold it in reverence. 2 Anaxagoras is said to have predicted that if the heavenly bodies should be loosened by some slip or shake, one of them might be torn away, and might plunge and fall down to earth; and he said that none of the stars was in its original position; for being of stone, and heavy, their shining light is caused by friction with the revolving aether, and they are forced along in fixed orbits by the whirling impulse which gave them their circular motion, and this was what prevented them from falling to our earth in the first place, when cold and heavy bodies were separated from universal matter.
[Lys. 12.3] 3 But there is a more plausible opinion than this, and its advocates hold that shooting stars are not a flow or emanation of aetherial fire, which the lower air quenches at the very moment of its kindling, nor are they an ignition and blazing up of a quantity of lower air which has made its escape into the upper regions; but they are plunging and falling heavenly bodies, carried out of their course by some relaxation in the tension of their circular most, and falling, not upon the inhabited region of the earth, but for the most part outside of it and into the great sea; and this is the reason why they are not noticed.
[Lys. 12.4] 4 But Daïmachus, in his treatise “On Religion,” supports the view of Anaxagoras. He says that before the stone fell, seventy-five days continually, there was seen in the heavens a fiery body of vast size, as if it had been a flaming cloud, not resting in one place, but moving along with intricate and irregular motions, so that fiery fragments, broken from it by its plunging and erratic course, were carried in all directions and flashed fire, just as shooting stars do. 5 But when it had fallen in that part of the earth, and the inhabitants, after recovering from their fear and amazement, were assembled about it, no action of fire was seen, nor even so much as a trace thereof, but a stone lying there, of large size, it is true, 440 but one which bore almost no proportion at all to the fiery mass seen in the heavens. Well, then, that Daïmachus must needs have indulgent readers, is clear; 6 but if his story is true, he refutes utterly those who affirm that a rock, which winds and tempests had torn from some mountain top, was caught up and borne along like a spinning top, and that at the point where the whirling impetus given to it first relaxed and ceased, there it plunged and fell. 7 Unless, indeed, what was seen in the heavens for many days was really fire, the quenching and extinction of which produced a change in the air resulting in unusually violent winds and agitations, and these brought about the plunge of the stone. However, the minute discussion of this subject belongs to another kind of writing.
[Lys. 13.1] 13 1 Lysander, after the three thousand Athenians whom he had taken prisoners had been condemned to death by the special council of allies, calling Philocles, their general, asked him what punishment should be visited upon him for having given his fellow-citizens such counsel regarding Greeks. But he, not one whit softened by his misfortunes, bade him not play the prosecutor in a case where there was no judge, but to inflict, as victor, the punishment he would have suffered if vanquished. Then, after bathing and putting on a rich robe, he went first to the slaughter and showed his countrymen the way, as Theophrastus writes. After this, Lysander sailed to the various cities, and ordered all the Athenians whom he met to go back to Athens, for he would spare none, he said, but would slaughter any whom he caught outside the city. 3 He took this course, and drove them all into the city together, because he wished that scarcity of food and a mighty famine should speedily afflict the city, in order that they might not hinder him by holding out against his siege with plenty of provisions. He also suppressed the democratic, and the other forms of government, and left one Lacedaemonian harmost in each city, and ten rulers chosen from the political clubs which he had organized throughout the cities. 4 This he did alike in the cities which had been hostile, and in those which had become his allies, and sailed along in leisurely fashion, in a manner establishing for himself the supremacy over Hellas. For in his appointments of the rulers he had regard neither to birth nor wealth, but put control of affairs into the hands of his comrades and partisans, and made them masters of rewards and punishments. He also took part himself in many massacres, and assisted in driving out the enemies of his friends. Thus he gave the Greeks no worthy specimen of Lacedaemonian rule, nay, even the comic poet Theopompus was thought absurd in likening the Lacedaemonians to tavern-women, because they gave the Greeks a very pleasant sip of freedom, and then dashed the wine with vinegar; for from the very first the taste was harsh and bitter, since Lysander not only would not suffer the people to be masters of their affairs, but actually put the cities into the hands of the boldest and most contentious of the oligarchs.
[Lys. 14.1] 14 1 After he had spent some little time in this business, and had sent messengers to Lacedaemon to report that he was sailing up with two hundred ships, he made a junction in Attica with the forces of Agis and Pausanias, the kings, believing that he would speedily capture the city. But since the Athenians held out against them, he took his ships and crossed again to Asia. Here he suppressed the governments of all the remaining cities in like manner, and set up decadarchies, many citizens being slain in each city, and many banished; he also drove out all the Samians, and handed their cities over to the men whom they had banished. 2 Moreover, when he had taken Sestos out of the hands of the Athenians, he would not permit the Sestians to dwell there, but gave the city and its territory to be divided among men who had been pilots and boatswains under him. And this was the first step of his which was resisted by the Lacedaemonians, who restored Sestians again to their country. 3 But there were other measures of Lysander upon 441 which all the Greeks looked with pleasure, when, for instance, the Aeginetans, after a long time, received back their own city, and when the Melians and Scionaeans were restored to their homes by him, after the Athenians had been driven out and had delivered back the cities.
[Lys. 14.4] And now, when he learned that the people of Athens were in a wretched plight from famine, he sailed into the Piraeus, and reduced the city, which was compelled to make terms on the basis of his commands. 4 It is true that one hears it said by Lacedaemonians that Lysander wrote to the ephors thus: “Athens is taken”; and that the ephors wrote back to Lysander: “ ‘Taken’ were enough”; but this actual story was invented for its neatness’ sake. The actual decree of the ephors ran thus: “This is what the Lacedaemonian authorities have decided: tear down the Piraeus and the long walls; quit all the cities and keep to your own land; if you do these things, and restore your causes, you shall have peace, if you want it. 5 As regards the number of your ships, whatsoever shall be decided there, this do.” This edict was accepted by the Athenians, on the advice of Theramenes the son of Hagnon, who, they say, being asked at this time by Cleomenes, one of the young orators, if he dared to act and speak the contrary to Themistocles, by surrendering those walls to the Lacedaemonians which that statesman had erected in defiance of the Lacedaemonians, replied: 6 “But I am doing nothing, young man, that is contrary to Themistocles; for the same walls which he erected for the safety of the citizens, we shall tear down for their safety. And if walls made cities prosperous, then Sparta must be in the worst plight of all, since she has none.”
[Lys. 15.1] 15 1 Lysander, accordingly, when he had taken possession of all the ships of the Athenians except twelve, and of their walls, on the sixteenth of the month Munychion, the same on which they conquered the Barbarian in the sea-fight at Salamis, took measures at once to change their form of government. 2 And when the Athenians opposed him bitterly in this, he sent word to the people that he had caught the city violating the terms of its surrender; for its walls were still standing, although the days were past within which they should have been pulled down; he should therefore present their case anew for the decision of the authorities, since they had broken their agreements. And some say that in very truth a proposition to sell the Athenians into slavery was actually made in the assembly of the allies, and that at this time Erianthus the Theban also made a motion that the city be razed to the ground, and the country about it left for sheep to graze. 3 Afterwards, however, when the leaders were gathered at a banquet, and a certain Phocian sang the first chorus in the “Electra” of Euripides, which begins with
[Lys. 15.1b] “O thou daughter of Agamemnon,
I am come, Electra, to thy rustic court,”
[Lys. 15.1c] all were moved to compassion, and felt it to be a cruel deed to abolish and destroy a city which was so famous, and produced such poets.
[Lys. 15.4] 4 So then, after the Athenians had yielded in all points, Lysander sent for many flute-girls from the city, and assembled all those who were already in the camp, and then tore down the walls, and burned up the triremes, to the sound of the flute, while the allies crowned themselves with garlands and made merry together, counting that day as the beginning of their freedom. 5 Then, without delay, he also made changes in the form of government, establishing thirty rulers in the city and ten in Piraeus. Further, he put a garrison into the acropolis, and made Callibius, a Spartan, its harmost. He it was who once lifted his staff to smite Autolycus, the athlete, whom Xenophon makes the chief character in his “Symposium”; and when Autolycus seized him by the legs and threw him down, Lysander did not side with Callibius in his vexation, but actually joined in censuring him, 442 saying that he did not understand how to govern freemen. But the Thirty, to gratify Callibius, soon afterwards put Autolycus to death.
[Lys. 16.1] 16 1 Lysander, after settling these matters, sailed for Thrace himself, but what remained of the public moneys, together with all the gifts and crowns which he had himself received, — many people, as was natural, offering presents to a man who had the greatest power, and who was, in a manner, master of Hellas, — he sent off to Lacedaemon by Gylippus, who had held command in Sicily. But Gylippus, as it is said, ripped open the sacks at the bottom, and after taking a large amount of silver from each, sewed them up again, not knowing that there was a writing in each indicating the sum it held. 2 And when he came to Sparta, he hid what he had stolen under the tiles of his house, but delivered the sacks to the ephors, and showed the seals upon them. When, however, the ephors opened the sacks and counted the money, its amount did not agree with the written lists, and the thing perplexed them, until a servant of Gylippus made the truth known to them by his riddle of many owls sleeping under the tiling. For most of the coinage of the time, as it seems, bore the forgery of an owl, owing to the supremacy of Athens.
[Lys. 17.1] 17 1 Gylippus, then, after adding a deed so disgraceful and ignoble as this to his previous great and brilliant achievements, removed himself from Lacedaemon. And the wisest of the Spartans, being led by this instance in particular to fear the power of money, which they said was corrupting influential as well as ordinary citizens, reproached Lysander, and fervently besought the ephors to purify the city of all the silver and the gold, as imported curses. The ephors deliberated on the matter. 2 And it was Sciraphidas, according to Theopompus, or Phlogidas, according to Ephorus, who declared that they ought not to receive gold and silver coinage into the city, but to use that of the country. Now this was of iron, and was dipped in vinegar as soon as it came from the fire, that it might not be worked over, but be made brittle and intractable by the dipping. Besides, it was very heavy and troublesome to carry, and a great quantity and weight of it had but little value. 3 Probably, too, all the ancient money was of this sort, some peoples using iron spits for coins, and some bronze; whence it comes that even to this day many small pieces of money retain the name of “oboli,” or spits, and six “oboli” make a “drachma,” or handful, since that was as many as the hand could grasp.
[Lys. 17.4] 4 But since Lysander’s friends opposed this measure, and insisted that the money remain in the city, it was resolved that money of this sort could be introduced for public use, but that if any private person should be found in possession of it, he should be punished with death; just as though Lycurgus had feared the coin, and not the covetousness which the coin produced. And this vice was not removed by allowing no private person to possess money, so much as it was encouraged by allowing the city to possess money, its use thereby acquiring dignity and honour. 5 Surely it was not possible for those who saw money publicly honoured, to despise it privately as of no service; or to consider as worthless for the individual’s private use that which was publicly held in such repute and esteem. Moreover, it takes far less time for public practices to affect the customs of private life, than it does for individual lapses and failings to corrupt entire cities. 6 For it is natural that the parts should rather be perverted along with the whole, when that deteriorates; but the diseases which flow from a part into the whole find many correctives and aids in the parts which remain sound. 443 And so these magistrates merely set the fear of the law to guard the houses of the citizens, that money might have no entrance there, but did not keep their spirits undaunted by the power of money and insensible to it; they rather inspired them all with an emulous desire for wealth as a great and noble object of pursuit. On this point, however, we have censured the Lacedaemonians in another treatise.
[Lys. 18.1] 18 1 Out of the spoils, Lysander set up at Delphi bronze statues of himself and each of his admirals, as well as golden stars of the Dioscuri, which disappeared before the battle of Leuctra. And in the treasury of Brasidas and the Acanthians there was stored a trireme two cubits long, made of gold and ivory, which Cyrus sent Lysander as a prize for his victory. 2 Moreover, Anaxandrides the Delphian writes that a deposit of Lysander’s was also stored there, consisting of a talent of silver, and fifty-two minas, and eleven staters besides; a statement that is inconsistent with the generally accepted accounts of his poverty. At any rate, Lysander was at this time more powerful than any Greek before him had been, and was thought to cherish a pretentious pride that was greater even than his power. 3 For he was the first Greek, as Duris writes, to whom the cities erected altars and made sacrifices as to a god, the first also to whom songs of triumph were sung. One of these is handed down, and begins as follows: —
[Lys. 18.1b] “The general of sacred Hellas
who came from wide-spaced Sparta
will we sing, O! io! Paean.”
[Lys. 18.4] 4 The Samians, too, voted that their festival of Hera should be called Lysandreia. And the poet Choerilus was always kept in his retinue, to adorn his achievements with verse; while with Antilochus, who composed some verses in his honour, he was so pleased that he filled his cap with silver and gave it to him. And when Antimachus of Colophon and a certain Niceratus of Heracleia competed one another at the Lysandreia in poems celebrating his achievements, he awarded the crown to Niceratus, and Antimachus, in vexation, suppressed his poem. 5 But Plato, who was then a young man, and admired Antimachus for his poetry, tried to cheer and console him in his chagrin at this defeat, telling him that it is the ignorant who suffer from their ignorance, just as the blind do from their blindness. However, when Aristonoüs the harper, who had been six times victor at the Pythian games, told Lysander in a patronizing way that if he should be victorious again, he would have himself proclaimed under Lysander’s name, “That is,” Lysander replied, “as my slave?”
[Lys. 19.1] 19 1 Now to the leading men, and to his equals, the ambition of Lysander was annoying merely. But since, owing to the court that was paid to him, great haughtiness and severity crept into his character along with his ambition, there was no such moderation as would become a popular leader either in his rewards or punishments, but the prizes he awarded to his friends and allies were irresponsible lordships over cities, and absolute sovereignties, while the sole punishment that could satisfy his wrath was the death of his enemy; not even exile was allowed. 2 Nay, at a later time, fearing lest the active popular leaders of Miletus should go into exile, and desiring to bring from their retreats those also who were in hiding, he made oath that he would do them no harm; but when the first put faith in him and the second came forth, he delivered them all over to the oligarchs for slaughter, being no less than eight hundred of both classes. 3 In the other cities also untold numbers of the popular party were slain, since he killed not only for his own private reasons, but also gratified by his murders the hatred and cupidity of his many friends everywhere, and shared the bloody work with them. Wherefore Eteocles the Lacedaemonian won great approval when he said that Hellas could not have borne two Lysanders. 444 Now this same utterance was made by Archestratus concerning Alcibiades also, as Theophrastus tells us. 4 But in his case it was insolence, and wanton self-will, that gave most offence; whereas Lysander’s power was made dreadful and oppressive by the cruelty of his disposition.
[Lys. 19.1b] The Lacedaemonians paid little heed to the rest of his accusers, but when Pharnabazus, who was outraged by Lysander’s pillaging and wasting his territory, sent men to Sparta to denounce him, the ephors were incensed, and when they found Thorax, one of Lysander’s friends and fellow-generals, with money in his private possession, they put him to death, and sent a dispatch-scroll to Lysander, ordering him home.
[Lys. 19.5] 5 The dispatch-scroll is of the following character. When the ephors send out an admiral or a general, they make two round pieces of wood exactly alike in length and thickness, so that each corresponds to the other in its dimensions, and keep one themselves, while they give the other to their envoy. These pieces of wood they call “scytalae.” 6 Whenever, then, they wish to send some secret and important message, they make a scroll of parchment long and narrow, like a leathern strap, and wind it round their “scytale,” leaving no vacant space thereon, but covering its surface all round with the parchment. After doing this, they write what they wish on the parchment, just as it lies wrapped about the “scytale”; and when they have written their message, they take the parchment off, and send it, without the piece of wood, to the commander. 7 He, when he has received it, cannot other get any meaning of it, — since the letters have no connection, but are disarranged, — unless he takes his own “scytale” and winds the strip of parchment about it, so that, when its spiral course is restored perfectly, and that which follows is joined to that which precedes, he reads around the staff, and so discovers the continuity of the message. And the parchment, like the staff, is called “scytale,” as the thing measured bears the name of the measure.
[Lys. 20.1] 20 1 But Lysander, when the dispatch-scroll reached him at the Hellespont, was much disturbed, and since he feared the denunciations of Pharnabazus above all others, he hastened to hold a conference with him, hoping to compose their quarrel. At this conference he begged Pharnabazus to write another letter about him to the magistrates, stating that he had not been wronged at all, and had no complaints to make. 2 But in thus “playing the Cretan against a Cretan,” as the saying is, he misjudged his opponent. For Pharnabazus, after promising to do all that he desired, openly wrote such a letter as Lysander demanded, but secretly kept another by him ready written. And when it came to putting on the seals, he exchanged the documents, which looked exactly alike, and gave him the letter which had been secretly written. 3 Accordingly, when Lysander arrived at Sparta and went, as the custom is, into the senate-house, he gave the ephors the letter of Pharnabazus, convinced that the greatest of the complaints against him was thus removed; for Pharnabazus was in high favour with the Lacedaemonians, because he had been, of all the King’s generals, most ready to help them in the war. 4 But when the ephors, after reading the letter, showed it to him, and he understood that
[Lys. 20.1b] “Odysseus, then, is not the only man of guile,”
[Lys. 20.5] for the time being he was mightily confounded and went away. But a few days afterwards, on meeting the magistrates, he said that he was obliged to go up to the temple of Ammon and sacrifice to the god the sacrifice which he had vowed before his battles. 5 Now some say that when he was besieging the city of Aphytae in Thrace, Ammon really stood by him in his sleep; wherefore he raised the siege, declaring that the god had commanded it, and ordered the Aphytaeans to sacrifice to Ammon, and was eager to make a journey into Libya and propitiate the god. 6 But the majority believed that he made the god a pretext, 445 and really feared the ephors, and was impatient of the yoke at home, and unable to endure being under authority, and therefore longed to wander and travel about somewhat, like a horse which comes back from unrestricted pasture in the meadows to his stall, and is put once more to his accustomed work. Ephorus, it is true, assigns another reason for this absence abroad, which I shall mention by and by.
[Lys. 21.1] 21 1 After he had with great difficulty procured his release by the ephors, he set sail. But the kings, when he had gone abroad, became aware that by means of the societies which he had formed, he had the cities entirely in his power and was master of Hellas; they therefore took measures for deposing his friends everywhere and restoring the management of affairs to the people. 2 However, fresh disturbances broke out in connection with these changes, and first of all the Athenians from Phyle attacked the Thirty and overpowered them. Lysander therefore came home in haste, and persuaded the Lacedaemonians to aid the oligarchies and chastise the democracies. Accordingly, they sent to the Thirty, first of all, a hundred talents for the war, and Lysander himself as general. 3 But the kings were jealous of him, and feared to let him capture Athens a second time; they therefore determined that one of them should go out with the army. And Pausanias did go out, ostensibly in behalf of the tyrants against the people, but really to put a stop to the war, in order that Lysander might not again become master of Athens through the efforts of his friends. This object, then, he easily accomplished, and by reconciling the Athenians and putting a stop to their discord, he robbed Lysander of his ambitious hopes. 4 A short time afterwards, however, when the Athenians revolted again, he himself was censured for taking the curb of the oligarchy out of the mouth of the people, and letting them grow bold and insolent again; while Lysander won fresh repute as a man who exercised his command in downright fashion, not for the gratification of others, nor yet to win applause, but for the good of Sparta.
[Lys. 22.1] 22 1 He was harsh of speech also, and terrifying to his opponents. For instance, when the Argives were disputing about boundaries, and thought they made a juster plea than the Lacedaemonians, he pointed to his sword, and said to them: “He who is master of this discourses best about boundaries.” And when a Megarian, in some conference with him, grew bold in speech, he said: “Thy words, Stranger, lack a city.” 2 And when the Boeotians tried to play a double game with him, he asked them whether he should march through their territory with spears upright, or levelled. And once when the Corinthians had revolted, a hare was seen leaping across the moat; whereupon he said: “Are ye not ashamed to fear enemies who are so lazy that hares sleep on their walls?”
[Lys. 22.3] 3 When Agis the king died, leaving a brother, Agesilaüs, and a reputed son, Leotychides, Lysander, who had been a lover of Agesilaüs, persuaded him to lay claim to the kingdom, on the ground that he was a genuine descendant of Heracles. For Leotychides was accused of being a son of Alcibiades, who had secret commerce with Timaea, the wife of Agis, while he was living in exile at export. 4 Now Agis, as they tell us, being convinced by a computation of time that his wife had not conceived by him, ignored Leotychides, and manifestly repudiated him up to the last. But when he was carried sick to Heraea and was about to die, he yielded to the entreaties of the young man himself and of his friends, and declared in the hearing of many that Leotychides was his own son, and after begging those who were present to bear witness of this to the Lacedaemonians, died. 446 5 Accordingly, they did so bear witness in favour of Leotychides. Moreover, Agesilaüs, who was otherwise illustrious, and had Lysander as a champion, was injured in his claim by Diopeithes, a man in high repute for his interpretation of oracles, who published the following prophecy with reference to the lameness of Agesilaüs: —
[Lys. 22.3b] “Bethink thee now, O Sparta, although thou art very proud,
Lest from thee, sound of foot, there spring a maimed royalty;
For long will unexpected toils oppress thee,
And onward rolling billows of man-destroying war.”
[Lys. 22.6] 6 Many, therefore, out of deference to the oracle, inclined to Leotychides, but Lysander declared that Diopeithes did not interpret the prophecy correctly; for it did not mean that the god would be displeased if one who was lame should rule the Lacedaemonians, but the kingdom would be maimed if bastards and ill-born men should be kings in a line with the posterity of Heracles. By such arguments, and because he had very great influence, he prevailed, and Agesilaüs became king.
[Lys. 23.1] 23 1 At once, then, Lysander tried to rouse and incite him to make an expedition into Asia, suggesting hopes that he would put down the Persians and become a very great man. He also wrote letters to his friends in Asia, bidding them ask Agesilaüs of the Lacedaemonians as general for their war against the Barbarians. 2 They obeyed, and sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon with the request, and thus an honour not inferior to that of being made king was obtained for Agesilaüs through the efforts of Lysander. But with ambitious natures, which are otherwise not ill qualified for command, jealousy of their equals in reputation is no slight obstacle to the performance of noble deeds; for they make those their rivals in the path of virtue, whom they might have as helpers. 3 Agesilaüs did indeed take Lysander with him among his thirty counsellors, intending to treat him with special favour as his chief friend; but when they were come into Asia, the people there, who were not acquainted with him, conferred with him but rarely and briefly, whereas Lysander, in consequence of their large intercourse with him in former times, had them always at his door and in his train, those who were his friends coming out of deference, and those whom he suspected, out of fear. 4 And just as in tragedies it naturally happens that an actor who takes the part of some messenger or servant is in high repute and plays leading rôles, while the one who bears the crown and sceptre is not even listened to when he speaks, so in this case the whole honour of the government was associated with the counsellor, and there was left for the king only the empty name of power. It is true, perhaps, that there should have been some gentle handling of this excessive ambition, and that Lysander should have been reduced to the second place; but entirely to cast off and insult, for fame’s sake, a benefactor and a friend, was not worthy of the character of Agesilaüs.
[Lys. 23.6] In the first place, then, he did not give him opportunities for achievement, nor even assign him to a command; and secondly, those in whose behalf he perceived that Lysander was earnestly exerting himself, these he always sent away with less reward than an ordinary suitor, or wholly unsuccessful, thus quietly undoing and chilling his influence. 6 So when Lysander missed all his aims, and saw that his interested efforts for his friends were an obstacle to their success, he not only ceased to give them his own aid, but begged them not to wait upon him nor pay him their court, but to confer with the king, and with such as had more power to benefit those who showed them honour than was his at present. 7 Most of those who heard this refrained from troubling him about their affairs, but did not cease paying him their court, nay rather, 447 by waiting upon him in the public walks and places of exercise, they gave Agesilaüs even more annoyance than before, because he envied him the honour. Therefore, though he offered most of the Spartans commands in the field and governments of cities, he appointed Lysander his carver of meats. And presently, as if by way of insult to the Ionians, he said: “Let them be off, and pay their court now to my carver of meats.” 8 Accordingly, Lysander determined to have a conference with him, at which a brief and laconic dialogue passed between them. “Verily, though knowest well, Agesilaüs, how to abase friends.” To which Agesilaüs: “Yes, if they would be greater than I; but those who increase my power should also share in it.” 9 “Well, perhaps thy words, Agesilaüs, are fairer than my deeds; but I beg thee, even because of the strangers who have their eyes upon us, to give me a post under thy command where thou believest that I shall be least annoying to thyself, and more serviceable than now.”
[Lys. 24.1] 24 1 Upon this, he was sent as ambassador to the Hellespont; and though he was angry with Agesilaüs, he did not neglect to do his duty, but induced Spithridates the Persian, a high-minded man with forces at his command, to revolt from Pharnabazus, with whom he was at odds, and brought him to Agesilaüs. 2 The king made no further use of Lysander, however, in the war, and when his time had expired, he sailed back to Sparta without honour, not only enraged at Agesilaüs, but hating the whole form of government more than ever, and resolved to put into execution at once, and without delay, the plans for a revolutionary change which he is thought to have devised and concocted some time before.
[Lys. 24.3] 3 They were as follows. Of the Heracleidae who united with the Dorians and came down into Peloponnesus, there was a numerous and glorious stock flourishing in Sparta; however, not every family belonging to it participated in the royal succession, but the kings were chosen from two houses only, and were called Eurypontidae and Agiadae. The rest had no special privileges in the government because of their high birth, but the honours which result from superior excellence lay open to all who had power and ability. 4 Now Lysander belonged to one of these families, and when he had risen to great fame for his deeds, and had acquired many friends and great power, he was vexed to see the city increased in power by his efforts, but ruled by others who were of no better birth than himself. He therefore planned to take the government away from the two houses, and restore it to all the Heracleidae in common, 5 or, as some say, not to the Heracleidae, but to the Spartans in general, in order that its high prerogatives might not belong to those only who were descended from Heracles, but to those who, like Heracles, were selected for superior excellence, since it was this which raised him to divine honours. And he hoped that when the kingdom was awarded on this principle, no Spartan would be chosen before himself.
[Lys. 25.1] 25 1 In the first place, then, he undertook and made preparations to persuade the citizens by his own efforts, and committed to memory a speech written by Cleon, the Halicarnassian, for the purpose. In the second place, seeing that the novelty and magnitude of his innovation demanded a more audacious support, he brought stage machinery to bear upon the citizens, as it were, 2 by collecting and arranging responses and oracles of Apollo; convinced that Cleon’s clever rhetoric would not help him at all unless he should first terrify and subdue his countrymen by vague religious fear and superstitious terror, and then bring them under the influence of his argument. 3 Well, then, Ephorus tells us that after an attempt to corrupt the Pythian priestess, and after a second failure to persuade the priestesses of Dodona by means of Pherecles, he went up to the temple of Ammon and had a conference with the god’s interpreters there, at which he offered them much money, but that they took this ill, and sent certain messengers to Sparta to denounce him; and further, that when Lysander was acquitted of their charges, the Libyans said, as they went away, “But we will pass better judgments than yours, 448 O Spartans, when ye come to dwell with us in Libya”; for they knew that there was a certain ancient oracle bidding the Lacedaemonians to settle in Libya. 4 But since the whole plot and concoction was no insignificant one, nor yet carelessly undertaken, but made many important assumptions, like a mathematical demonstration, and proceeded to its conclusion through premises which were difficult and hard to obtain, we shall follow, in our description of it, the account of one who was both a historian and a philosopher.
[Lys. 26.1] 26 1 There was a woman in Pontus who declared that she was with child by Apollo. Many disbelieved her, as was natural, but many also lent an ear to her, so that when she gave birth to a male child, many notable persons took an interest in its care and rearing. For some reason or other, the name given to the boy was Silenus. Lysander took these circumstances for his foundation, and supplied the rest of his cunning fabric himself, making use of not a few, nor yet insignificant, champions of the tale, 2 who brought the story of the boy’s birth into credit without exciting suspicion. They also brought back another response from Delphi, and caused it to be circulated in Sparta, which declared that sundry very ancient oracles were kept in secret writings by the priests there, and that it was not possible to get these, nor even lawful to read them, unless someone born of Apollo should come after a long lapse of time, give the keepers an intelligible token of his birth, and obtain the tablets containing the oracles. 3 The way thus being prepared, Silenus was to come and demand the oracles as Apollo’s son, and the priests who were in the secret were to insist on precise answers to all their questions about his birth, and finally, persuaded, forsooth, that he was the son of Apollo, were to show him the writing. Then Silenus, in the presence of many witnesses, was to read aloud the prophecies, especially the one relating to the kingdom, for the sake of which the whole scheme had been invented, and which declared that it was more for the honour and interest of the Spartans to choose their kings from the best citizens.
[Lys. 26.4] 4 But when at last Silenus was grown to be a youth, and was ready for the business, Lysander’s play was ruined for him by the cowardice of one of his actors, or co workers, who, just as he came to the point, lost his courage and drew back. However, all this was actually found out, not while Lysander was alive, but after his death.
[Lys. 27.1] 27 1 And he died before Agesilaüs returned from Asia, after he had plunged, or rather had plunged Hellas, into the Boeotian war. For it is stated in both ways; and some hold him responsible for the war, others the Thebans, and others both together. It is charged against the Thebans that they cast away the sacrifices at Aulis, and that, because Androcleides and Amphitheus had been bribed with the King’s money to stir up a war in Greece against the Lacedaemonians, they set upon the Phocians and ravaged their country. 2 It is said, on the other hand, that Lysander was angry with the Thebans because they alone laid claim to a tenth part of the spoils of the war, while the rest of the allies held their peace; and because they were indignant about the money which he sent to Sparta; but above all, because they first put the Athenians in the way of freeing themselves from the thirty tyrants whom he had set up, whose terrorizing power the Lacedaemonians had increased by decreeing that fugitives from Athenians might be brought back from every place of refuge, and that all who impeded their return should be declared enemies of Sparta. 3 In reply to this the Thebans issued counter decrees, akin in spirit to the beneficent deeds of Heracles and Dionysus, to the effect that every house and city in Boeotia should be open to such Athenians as needed succour; and that whosoever did not help a fugitive under arrest, should be fined a talent; 449 and that if any one should carry arms through Boeotia against the tyrants in Athens, no Theban would either see him or hear about it. 4 And they did not merely vote such Hellenic and humane decrees, without at the same time making their deeds correspond to their edicts; but Thrasybulus and those who with him occupied Phyle, set out from Thebes to do so, and the Thebans not only provided them with arms and money, but also with secrecy and a base of operations. Such, then, were the grounds of complaint which Lysander had against the Thebans.
[Lys. 28.1] 28 1 And since he was now of an altogether harsh disposition, owing to the melancholy which persisted into his old age, he stirred up the ephors, and persuaded them to fit out an expedition against the Thebans; and assuming the command, he set out on the campaign. Afterwards the ephors sent out Pausanias the king also with an army. 2 Now it was the plan that Pausanias should make a circuit by the way of Mount Cithaeron, and then invade Boeotia, while Lysander marched through Phocis to meet him, with a large force. He took the city of Orchomenus, which came over to him of its own accord, and assaulted and plundered Lebadeia. Then he sent a letter to Pausanias, bidding him move from Plataea and join forces with him at Haliartus, and promising that he himself would be before the walls of Haliartus at break of day. This letter was brought to Thebes by some scouts, into whose hands its bearer fell. 3 The Thebans therefore entrusted their city to a force of Athenians which had come to their aid, while they themselves set out early in the night, and succeeded in reaching Haliartus a little before Lysander, and a considerable part of them entered the city. Lysander at first decided to post his army on a hill and wait for Pausanias; then, as the day advanced, being unable to remain inactive, he took his arms, encouraged his allies, and led them along the road in column towards the wall of the city. 4 But those of the Thebans who had remained outside, taking the city on their left, advanced upon the rear of their enemy, at the spring called Cissusa. Here, as the story goes, his nurses bathed the infant Dionysus after his birth; for the water has the colour and sparkle of wine, is clear, and very pleasant to the taste. And not far away the Cretan storax-shrub grows in profusion, which the Haliartans regard as a proof that Rhadamanthus once dwelt there; and they show his tomb, which they call Alea. 5 And near by is also the memorial of Alcmene; for she was buried there, as they say, having lived with Rhadamanthus after the death of Amphitryon.
[Lys. 28.6] But the Thebans inside the city, drawn up in battle array with the Haliartans, kept quiet for some time; when, however, they saw Lysander with his foremost troops approaching the wall, they suddenly threw open the gate and fell upon them, and killed Lysander himself with his soothsayer, and a few of the rest; for the greater part of them fled swiftly back to the main body. 6 And when the Thebans made no halt, but pressed hard upon them, the whole force turned to the hills in flight, and a thousand of them were slain. Three hundred of the Thebans also lost their lives by pursuing their enemies into rough and dangerous places. These had been accused of favouring the Spartan cause, and in their eagerness to clear themselves of this charge in the eyes of their fellow-citizens, they exposed themselves needlessly in the pursuit, and so threw away their lives.
[Lys. 29.1] 29 1 Tidings of the disaster were brought to Pausanias while he was on the march from Plataea to Thespiae, and putting his army in battle array, he came to Haliartus. Thrasybulus also came from Thebes, leading his Athenians. But when Pausanias was minded to ask for the bodies of the dead under a truce, the elders of the Spartans could not brook it, and were angry among themselves, and coming to the king, 450 they protested that the body of Lysander must not be taken up under cover of a truce, but by force of arms, in open battle for it; and that if they conquered, then they would give him burial, but if they were vanquished, it would be a glorious thing to lie dead with their general. 2 Such were the words of the elders; but Pausanias saw that it would be a difficult matter to conquer the Thebans, flushed as they were with victory, and that the body of Lysander lay near the walls, so that its recovery would be difficult without a truce, even if they were victorious; he therefore sent a herald, and after making a truce, led his forces back. 3 And as soon as they had come beyond the boundary of Boeotia with Lysander’s body, they buried it in the friendly soil of their allies, the Panopeans, where his monument now stands, by the road leading from Delphi to Chaeroneia.
[Lys. 29.3] Here the army bivouacked; and it is said that a certain Phocian, recounting the action to another who was not in it, said that the enemy fell upon them just after Lysander had crossed the Hoplites. 4 Then a Spartan, who was a friend of Lysander, asked in amazement what he meant by Hoplites, for he did not know the name. “Indeed it was there,” said the Phocian, “that the enemy slew the foremost of us; for the stream that flows past the city is called Hoplites.” On hearing this, the Spartan burst into tears, and said that man could not escape his destiny. 5 For Lysander, as it appears, had received an oracle running thus: —
[Lys. 29.3b] “Be on thy guard, I bid thee, against a sounding Hoplites,
And an earth born dragon craftily coming behind thee.”
[Lys. 29.6] Some, however, say that the Hoplites does not flow before Haliartus, but is a winter torrent near Coroneia, which joins the Philarus and then flows past that city; in former times it was called Hoplias, but now Isomantus. 6 Moreover, the man of Haliartus who killed Lysander, Neochorus by name, had a dragon as emblem on his shield, and to this, it was supposed, the oracle referred. And it is said that the Thebans also, during the Peloponnesian war, received an oracle at the sanctuary of Ismenus which indicated beforehand not only the battle at Delium, but also this battle at Haliartus, thirty years later. 7 It ran as follows: —
[Lys. 29.6b] “When thou huntest the wolf with the spear, watch closely the border,
Orchalides, too, the hill which foxes never abandon.”
[Lys. 29.6c] Now by “border,” the god meant the region about Delium, where Boeotia is conterminous with Attica; and by Orchalides, the hill which is now called Alopecus, or Fox-hill, in the parts of Haliartus which stretch towards Mount Helicon.
[Lys. 30.1] 30 1 Now that Lysander had met with such an end, at the outset the Spartans were so indignant about it that they summoned the king to trial for his life; but he evaded it, and fled to Tegea, where he spent the end of his days as a suppliant in the sanctuary of Athena. 2 For the poverty of Lysander, which was discovered at his death, made his excellence more apparent to all, since from the vast wealth and power in his hands, and from the great homage paid him by cities and the Great King, he had not, even in the slightest degree, sought to amass money for the aggrandizement of his family. This is the testimony of Theopompus, who is more to be trusted when he praises than when he blames; for he takes more pleasure in blaming than in praising. 3 But after some time had passed, according to Ephorus, some dispute arose at Sparta with her allies, and it became necessary to inspect the writings which Lysander had kept by him; for which purpose Agesilaüs went to his house. And when he found the book containing the speech on the constitution, which argued that the kingship ought to be taken from the Eurypontidae and Agiadae and made accessible to all Spartans alike, and that the choice should be made from the best of these, 4 he was eager to produce the speech before his countrymen, and show them what the real character of Lysander’s citizenship had been. 451 But Lacratidas, a prudent man, and at that time the principal ephor, held Agesilaüs back, saying that they ought not to dig Lysander up again, but rather to bury the speech along with him, since it was composed with such a subtle persuasiveness.
[Lys. 30.5] 5 However, they paid him many honours at his death. In particular, they imposed a fine upon the men who had engaged to marry his daughters, and then, after Lysander’s death, had renounced the engagement. The reason given for the fine was that the men had paid court to Lysander while they thought him rich, but when his poverty showed them that he was just a good man, they forsook him. For there was, as it appears, a penalty at Sparta not only for not marrying at all, and for a late marriage, but also a bad marriage; and to this last they subjected those especially who sought alliance with the rich, instead of with the good and with their own associates. Such, then, are the accounts we have found given of Lysander.

## Sulla

[Sull. 1.1] 1 1 LUCIUS Cornelius Sulla belonged to a patrician, or noble, family, and one of his ancestors, Rufinus, is said to have been consul, although he was not so conspicuous for this honour as for the dishonour which he incurred. For he was found to be possessed of more than ten pounds of silver plate, contrary to the law, and was for this reason expelled from the senate. His posterity became at once obscure, and continued so, nor did Sulla himself enjoy a wealthy parentage. 2 When he was a youth, he lived in lodgings, at a low price, and this was afterwards thrust in his teeth when men thought him unduly prosperous. For instance, we are told that when he was putting on boastful airs after his campaign in Libya, a certain nobleman said to him: “How canst thou be an honest man, when thy father left thee nothing, and yet thou art so rich?” 3 For although the Romans of that time no longer retained their ancient purity and uprightness of life, but had degenerated, and yielded to the appetite for luxury and extravagance, they nevertheless held in equal opprobrium those who lost an inherited wealth and those who forsook an ancestral poverty. 4 And afterwards, when he had at last become absolute in power, and was putting many to death, a freedman, who was thought to be concealing one of the proscribed, and was therefore to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock, cast it in his teeth that they had long lived together in one lodging house, himself renting the upper rooms at two thousand sesterces, and Sulla the lower rooms at three thousand. The difference in their fortunes, therefore, was only a thousand sesterces, which are equivalent to two hundred and fifty Attic drachmas. Such, then, is the account we find of Sulla’s earlier fortune.
[Sull. 2.1] 2 1 His personal appearance, in general, is given by his statues; but the gleam of his gray eyes, which was terribly sharp and powerful, was rendered even more fearful by the complexion of his face. This was covered with coarse blotches of red, interspersed with white. For this reason, they say, his surname was given him because of his complexion, and it was in allusion to this that a scurrilous jester at Athens made the verse: —
[Sull. 2.1b] “Sulla is a mulberry sprinkled o’er with meal.”
[Sull. 2.2] 2 Nor is it out of place to mention such testimonies in the case of a man said to have been by nature so fond of raillery, that when he was still young and obscure he spent much time with actors and buffoons and shared their dissolute life; and when he had made himself supreme master, he would daily assemble the most reckless stage and theatre folk to drink and bandy jests with them, although men thought that he disgraced his years, and although he not only dishonoured his high office, but neglected much that required attention. 3 For when Sulla was once at table, he refused to be serious at all, but, although at other times he was a man of business and wore an austere look, he underwent a complete change as soon as he betook himself to good-fellowship and drinking, so that comic singers and dancers found him anything but ferocious, and ready to listen and yield to every request. It was this laxity, as it seems, which produced in him a diseased propensity to amorous indulgence and an unrestrained voluptuousness, from which he did not refrain even in his old age, 4 but continued his youthful love for Metrobius, an actor. He also had the following experience. He began by loving a common but wealthy woman, Nicopolis by name, and such was the charm of his intimacy and youthful grace that in the end he was beloved by her, and was left her heir when she died. He also inherited the property of his step-mother, who loved him as her own son. By these means he became moderately well off.
[Sull. 3.1] 3 1 Having been appointed quaestor to Marius in his first consulship, he sailed with him to Libya, to make war upon Jugurtha. He was put in charge of the camp, and won great credit for himself, especially by improving a favourable opportunity and making a friend of Bocchus, the king of Numidia. For he hospitably entertained ambassadors of the king, who had escaped from Numidian robbers, and sent them on their way with gifts and a safe escort. 2 Now Bocchus had for a long time hated and feared his son-in law, Jugurtha, who had been defeated and had fled to him for safety, and was then plotting against him. He therefore invited Sulla to come to him, wishing to have the seizure and surrender of Jugurtha effected through Sulla rather than through himself. Sulla imparted the matter to Marius, and taking with him a few soldiers, underwent the greatest peril; he put faith in a Barbarian, and one who was faithless towards his own relations, and to secure his surrender of another, placed himself in his hands. 3 However, Bocchus, now that he had both in his power, and had laid himself under the necessity of proving false to one or the other, although he vacillated long, finally decided upon his original betrayal, and handed Jugurtha over to Sulla. It is true that the one who celebrated a triumph for this was Marius, but those who envied him attributed the glory of the success to Sulla, and this secretly annoyed Marius. 4 And indeed Sulla himself was naturally vainglorious, and now that he had for the first time emerged from his lowly and obscure condition and become of some account among his countrymen, and was enjoying a taste of honour, he was arrogant enough to have a representation of his exploit engraved on a seal-ring which he wore, and continued to use it ever after. The device was, Bocchus delivering, and Sulla receiving, Jugurtha.
[Sull. 4.1] 4 1 Of course this distressed Marius; but since he considered Sulla to be beneath his envy, he used him in his campaigns, during his second consulship as legate, or lieutenant, and during his third as military tribune, and through his agency performed many successful services. For instance, as legate, Sulla captured Copillus, chieftain of the Tectosages; and as tribune, he persuaded the great and populous nation of the Marsi to become friends and allies of Rome. 2 But perceiving that Marius was vexed with him for these successes, and that he was no longer glad to give him opportunities for action, but opposed his advancement, he attached himself to Catulus, the colleague of Marius in the consulship, a worthy man, but too sluggish for arduous contests. By him he was entrusted with the leading and most important enterprises, and rose to power and fame. 3 He not only subdued in war a large part of the Barbarians of the Alps, but when provisions ran low, he undertook the task of furnishing them, and made them so abundant that the soldiers of Catulus lived in plenty, and had some to spare for those of Marius. At this, as Sulla himself says, Marius was greatly distressed. 4 So slight and puerile were the first foundations and occasions of that hatred between them, which afterwards led them through civil bloodshed and irreparable discords to tyranny and the confusion of the whole state. This proved that Euripides was a wise man, and acquainted with the distempers of civil government, when he exhorted men to beware of ambition as a deity most injurious and fatal to its votaries.
[Sull. 5.1] 5 1 Sulla now thought that the reputation which he had won in war was sufficient to justify political activities, and therefore at once exchanged military service for public life, offered himself as a candidate for the city praetorship, and was defeated. The responsibility for his defeat, however, he lays upon the populace. They knew, he says, about his friendship with Bocchus, and expected that if he should be made aedile before his praetorship, he would treat them to splendid hunting scenes and combats of Libyan wild beasts, and therefore appointed others to the praetorship, in order to force him into the aedileship. 2 But subsequent events would seem to show that Sulla does not confess the real reason for his failure. For in the following year he obtained the praetorship, partly because he was subservient to the people, and partly because he used money to win their support. And so it happened that, during his praetorship, when he angrily told Caesar that he would use his own authority against him, Caesar laughed and said: “You do well to consider the office your own, for you bought it.”
[Sull. 5.3] 3 After his praetorship, he was sent out to Cappadocia, ostensibly to reinstate Ariobarzanes, but really to check the restless activities of Mithridates, who was adding to his dominion and power fully as much as he had inherited. Accordingly, he took out with him no large force of his own, but made use of the allies, whom he found eager to serve him, and, after slaying many of the Cappadocians themselves, and yet more of the Armenians who came to their aid, he drove out Gordius, and made Ariobarzanes king again.
[Sull. 5.4] 4 As he lingered on the banks of the Euphrates, he received a visit from Orobazus, a Parthian, who came as an ambassador from king Arsaces, although up to this time the two nations had held no intercourse with one another. This also is thought to have been part of Sulla’s great good fortune, that he should be the first Roman with whom the Parthians held conference when they wanted alliance and friendship. On this occasion, too, it is said that he ordered three chairs to be set, one for Ariobarzanes, one for Orobazus, and one for himself, and that he sat between them both and gave them audience. 5 For this the king of Parthia afterwards put Orobazus to death; and while some people commended Sulla for the airs which he assumed with the Barbarians, others accused him of vulgarity and ill-timed arrogance. It is also recorded that a certain man in the retinue of Orobazus, a Chaldaean, after looking Sulla intently in the face, and studying carefully the movements of his mind and body, 6 and investigating his nature according to the principles of his peculiar art, declared that this man must of necessity become the greatest in the world, and that even now the wonder was that he consented not to be first of all men. When Sulla came back to Rome, however, Censorinus brought suit against him for bribery, alleging that he had collected large sums of money illegally from a friendly and allied kingdom. However, Censorinus did not put in an appearance at the trial, but dropped his impeachment.
[Sull. 6.1] 6 1 Moreover, Sulla’s quarrel with Marius broke out afresh on being supplied with fresh material by the ambition of Bocchus, who, desiring to please the people at Rome, and at the same time to gratify Sulla, dedicated on the Capitol some images bearing trophies, and beside them gilded figures representing Jugurtha being surrendered by Bocchus to Sulla. 2 Thereupon Marius was very angry, and tried to have the figures taken down, but others were minded to aid Sulla in opposing this, and the city was all but in flames with their dispute, when the Social war, which had long been smouldering, blazed up against the city and put a stop for the time being to the quarrel. In this war, which proved of the greatest moment and most varied fortunes, and brought innumerable mischiefs and the gravest perils upon the Romans, Marius was unable to render any great service, and proved that military excellence requires a man’s highest strength and vigour.
[Sull. 6.3] Sulla, on the other hand, did much that was memorable, and achieved the reputation of a great leader among his fellow-citizens, that of the greatest of leaders among his friends, and that of the most fortunate even among his enemies. 3 But he did not feel about this as Timotheus the son of Conon did, who, when his adversaries ascribed his successes to Fortune, and had him represented in a painting as lying asleep, while Fortune cast her net about the cities, was rudely angry with those who had done this, because, as he thought, they were robbing him of the glory due to his exploits, and said to the people once, on returning from a campaign in which he was thought to have been successful: “In this campaign, at least, men of Athens, Fortune has no share.” 4 Upon Timotheus, then, who had shown himself so covetous of honour, the deity is said to have requited his youthful petulance, so from that time on he did nothing brilliant, but miscarried in all his undertakings, gave offence to the people, and was finally banished from the city; whereas Sulla not only accepted with pleasure such felicitations and admiration, but actually joined in magnifying the aid of Heaven in what he did, and gave the credit of it to Fortune, either out of boastfulness, or because he had such a belief in the divine agency. 5 For in his Memoirs he writes that, of the undertakings which men thought well-advised, those upon which he had boldly ventured, not after deliberation, but on the spur of the moment, turned out for the better.
[Sull. 6.6] And further, from what he says about his being well endowed by nature for Fortune rather than for war, he seems to attribute more to Fortune than to his own excellence, and to make himself entirely the creature of this deity, since he accounts even his concord with Metellus, a man equal in rank, and a relative by marriage, a piece of divine felicity; for whereas he expected much annoyance from him as a colleague in office, he found him most obliging. 6 And still further, in the dedication of his Memoirs to Lucullus, he advises him to deem nothing so secure as what the divine power enjoins upon him in his dreams. And he relates that when he was dispatched with an army to the Social war, a great chasm in the earth opened near Laverna, from which a great quantity of fire burst forth and a bright flame towered up towards the heavens; 7 whereupon the soothsayers declared that a brave man, of rare courage and surpassing appearance, was to take the government in hand and free the city from its present troubles. And Sulla says that he himself was this man, for his golden head of hair gave him a singular appearance, and as for bravery, he was not ashamed to testify in his own behalf, after such great and noble deeds as he had performed. So much, then, regarding his attitude towards the divine powers.
[Sull. 6.8] In others he seems to have been of very uneven character, and at variance with himself; he robbed much, but gave more; bestowed his honours unexpectedly, as unexpectedly his insults; fawned on those he needed, but gave himself airs towards those who needed him; so that one cannot tell whether he was more inclined by nature to disdain or flattery. 8 For as regards the irregularity of his punishments, cudgelling to death as he did on any chance grounds, and again gently submitting to the greatest wrongs; readily open to reconciliation after the most irreparable injuries, but visiting small and insignificant offences with death and confiscation of goods; here one might decide that he was naturally of a stern and revengeful temper, but relaxed his severity out of calculating regard for his interests. 9 In this very Social war, for example, when his soldiers with clubs did to death a legate, a man of praetorian dignity, Albinus by name, he passed over without punishment this flagrant crime, and solemnly sent the word about that he would find his men more ready and willing for the war on account of this transgression, since they would try to atone for it by their bravery. To those who censured the crime he paid no heed, but purposing already to put down the power of Marius and, now that the Social war was thought to be at an end, to get himself appointed general against Mithridates, he treated the soldiers under him with deference.
[Sull. 6.10] 10 When he returned to the city, he was appointed consul with Quintus Pompeius, in the fiftieth year of his age, and made a most illustrious marriage with Caecilia, the daughter of Metellus, the Pontifex Maximus. On the theme of this marriage many verses were sung in ridicule of him by the common people, and many of the leading men were indignant at it, deeming him, as Livy says, unworthy of the woman although they had judged him worthy of the consulship. 11 And this was not the only woman whom he married, but first, when he was still a stripling, he took Ilia to wife, and she bore him a daughter; than Aelia, after her; and thirdly, Cloelia, whom he divorced for barrenness, honourably, and with words of praise, to which he added gifts. But since he married Metella only a few days afterwards, he was thought to have accused Cloelia unfairly. 12 To Metella, however, he always showed great deference in all things, so that the Roman people, when it longed for the restoration of the exiled partisans of Marius, and Sulla refused it, in its need called upon Metella for aid. It was thought also that when he took the city of Athens, he treated its people more harshly because they had scurrilously abused Metella from the walls. But this was later.
[Sull. 7.1] 7 1 At the time of which I speak, deeming the consulship a slight matter in comparison with things to come, his thoughts soared to the Mithridatic war. But here he found a rival in Marius, who was possessed by ambition and a mad desire for fame, those never ageing passions. He was now unwieldy in body, and in the recent campaigns had given up service on account of his age, and yet set his heart upon foreign wars beyond the seas. 2 And when Sulla had set out for his camp on unfinished business, he himself kept at home and contrived that most fatal sedition, which wrought Rome more harm than all her wars together had done, as indeed the heavenly powers foreshowed to them. For fire broke forth of its own accord from the staves which supported the ensigns, and was with difficulty extinguished; and three ravens brought their young forth into the street and devoured them, and then carried the remains back again into their nest; 3 and after mice had gnawed consecrated gold in a temple, the keepers caught one of them, a female, in a trap, and in the very trap she brought forth five young ones and ate up three of them.
[Sull. 7.4] But most important of all, out of a cloudless and clear air there rang out the voice of a trumpet, prolonging a shrill and dismal note, so that all were amazed and terrified at its loudness. The Tuscan wise men declared that the prodigy foretokened a change of conditions and the advent of a new age. 4 For according to them there are eight ages in all, differing from one another in the lives and customs of men, and to each of these God has appointed a definite number of times and seasons, which is completed by the circuit of a great year. And whenever this circuit has run out, and another begins, some wonderful sign is sent from earth or heaven, so that it is at once clear to those who have studied such subjects and are versed in them, that men of other habits and modes of life have come into the world, who are either more or less of concern to the gods than their predecessors were. 5 All things, they say, undergo great changes, as one again succeeds another, and especially the art of divination; at one period it rises in esteem and is successful in its predictions, because manifest and genuine signs are sent forth from the Deity; and again, in another age, it is in small repute, being off-hand, for the most part, and seeking to grasp the future by means of faint and blind senses.
[Sull. 7.6] Such, at any rate, was the tale told by the wisest of the Tuscans, who were thought to know much more about it than the rest. 6 Moreover, while the senate was busied with the soothsayers about these prodigies, and holding its session in the temple of Bellona, a sparrow came flying in, before the eyes of all, with a grasshopper in its mouth, a part of which it threw down and left there, and then went away with the other part. From this the diviners apprehended a quarrelsome dissension between the landed proprietors and the populace of the city and forum; for the latter is vociferous like a grasshopper, while the former haunt the fields (like the sparrow).
[Sull. 8.1] 8 1 Marius now made alliance with Sulpicius who was a tribune of the people, a man second to none in prime villainies, so that the question was not whom else he surpassed in wickedness, but in what he surpassed his own wickedness. For the combination of cruelty, effrontery, and rapacity in him was regardless of shame and of all evil, since he sold the Roman citizenship to freedmen and aliens at public sale, and counted out the price on a money-table which stood in the forum. 2 Moreover, he maintained three thousand swordsmen, and had about him a body of young men of the equestrian order who were ready for everything, and whom he called his anti-senate. Further, though he got a law passed that no senator should incur a debt of more than two thousand drachmas, he himself left behind him after death a debt of three millions. This man was now let loose upon the people by Marius, and after confounding all things by force and the sword, he proposed certain vicious laws, and particularly one offering to Marius the command in the Mithridatic war. 3 To prevent voting on these, the consuls decreed suspension of public business, as they were holding an assembly near the temple of Castor and Pollux, and, amongst many others, slew also the young son of Pompeius the consul in the forum; but Pompeius made his escape unnoticed. Sulla, however, after having been pursued into the house of Marius, was forced to come forth and rescind the decree for suspension of public business; 4 and it was because he did this that Sulpicius, although he deposed Pompeius, did not take the consulship away from Sulla, but merely transferred the expedition against Mithridates to the command of Marius. He also sent military tribunes at once to Nola, who were to take over the army there and conduct it to Marius.
[Sull. 9.1] 9 1 But Sulla succeeded in making his escape and reaching the camp first, and his soldiers, when they learned what had happened, stoned the tribunes to death; in return for which, Marius and his partisans in the city went to slaying the friends of Sulla and plundering their property. Then there were removals and flights, some passing continually from camp to city, and others from city to camp. 2 The senate was not its own master, but was governed by the dictates of Marius and Sulpicius, and when it learned that Sulla was marching against the city, it sent two of the praetors, Brutus and Servilius, to forbid his advance. These men addressed Sulla with too much boldness, whereupon his soldiers would have gladly torn them to pieces, but contented themselves with breaking their fasces, stripping them of their senatorial togas, insulting them in many ways, and then sending them back to the city. Here a terrible dejection was produced by the mere sight of them, stripped of their praetorial insignia, and by their announcement that the sedition could no longer be checked, but must run its course.
[Sull. 9.3] 3 Marius and his partisans, then, busied themselves with preparations; while Sulla, at the head of six full legions, moved with his colleague from Nola, his army, as he saw, being eager to march at once against the city, although he himself wavered in his own mind, and feared the danger. But after he had offered a sacrifice, Postumius the soothsayer learned what the omens were, and stretching out both hands to Sulla, begged that he might be bound and kept a prisoner until the battle, assuring him that he was willing to undergo the extremest penalty if all things did not speedily come to a good issue for him. 4 It is said, also, that to Sulla himself there appeared in his dreams a goddess whom the Romans learned to worship from the Cappadocians, whether she is Luna, or Minerva, or Bellona. This goddess, as Sulla fancied, stood by his side and put into his hand a thunder-bolt, and naming his enemies one by one, bade him smite them with it; and they were all smitten, and fell, and vanished away. Encouraged by the vision, he told it to his colleague, and at break of day led on towards Rome.
[Sull. 9.5] 5 When he had reached Pictae, he was met by a deputation from the city, which begged him not to advance to an immediate attack, since the senate had voted that he should have all his rights; he therefore agreed to encamp there, and ordered his officers to measure out the ground, as was usual, for the camp, so that the deputation returned to the city believing that he would do so. But no sooner were they gone than he sent forward Lucius Basillus and Caius Mummius, who seized for him the city-gate and the walls on the Esquiline hill; then he himself followed hard after them with all speed. 6 Basillus and his men burst into the city and were forcing their way along, when the unarmed multitude pelted them with stones and tiles from the roofs of the houses, stopped their further progress, and crowded them back to the wall. But by this time Sulla was at hand, and seeing what was going on, shouted orders to set fire to the houses, and seizing a blazing torch, led the way himself, and ordered his archers to use their fire-bolts and shoot them up at the roofs. This he did not from any calm calculation, 7 but in a passion, and having surrendered to his anger the command over his actions, since he thought only of his enemies, and without any regard or even pity for friends and kindred and relations, made his entry by the aid of fire, which made no distinction between the guilty and the innocent. Meanwhile Marius, who had been driven back to the temple of Tellus, made a proclamation calling the slaves to his support under promise of freedom; but the enemy coming on, he was overpowered and fled from the city.
[Sull. 10.1] 10 1 Sulla now called together the senate, and had a sentence of death passed on Marius himself and a few others, among whom was Sulpicius the tribune of the people. But Sulpicius was killed, after he had been betrayed by a servant, to whom Sulla first gave his freedom, and then had him thrown down the Tarpeian rock; moreover, he set a price on the head of Marius, an act both ungrateful and impolitic, since it was in his house that he had found refuge and surrendered himself a little before this, and had been let off safe. 2 And yet had Marius at that time not let Sulla go, but given him up to death at the hands of Sulpicius, he might have been absolute master in Rome; nevertheless he spared his life, and when after a few days he had given him the same opportunity, he did not obtain like mercy. By these proceedings Sulla won the secret dislike of the senate; but the people’s hatred and indignation was made manifest to him by their acts. 3 For instance, they ignominiously rejected Nonius his nephew, and Servius, who were his candidates for offices, and appointed others, whose preferment they thought would be most vexing to him. But he pretended to be pleased at this, saying that the people, in doing as it pleased, enjoyed a freedom which was due to him, and out of deference to the hatred of the multitude allowed Lucius Cinna, a man of the opposite faction, to be invested with the consulship, after binding him by solemn oaths to be favourable to his policies. 4 And Cinna went up to the Capitol with a stone in his hand and took the oaths, and then, after praying that if he did not maintain his goodwill towards Sulla, he might be cast out of the city, as the stone from his hand, he threw the stone upon the ground in the sight of many people. But as soon as he had entered upon his office, he tried to subvert the existing order of things, and had an impeachment prepared against Sulla, and appointed Virginius, a tribune of the people, to be his accuser. But Sulla, ignoring alike accuser and court, set out against Mithridates.
[Sull. 11.1] 11 And it is said that about the time when Sulla was moving his armament from Italy, Mithridates, who was staying at Pergamum, was visited with many other portents from Heaven, and that a Victory with a crown in her hand, which the Pergamenians were lowering towards him by machinery of some sort, was broken to pieces just as she was about to touch his head, and the crown went tumbling from her hand to the ground in the midst of the theatre, and was shattered, whereat the people shuddered, and Mithridates was greatly dejected, although at that time his affairs were prospering beyond his hopes. 2 For he himself had wrested Asia from the Romans, and Bithynia and Cappadocia from their kings, and was now set down in Pergamum, dispensing riches, principalities, and sovereignties to his friends; and of his sons, one was in Pontus and Bosporus, holding without any opposition the ancient realm as far as the deserts beyond Lake Maeotis, while Ariarathes was overrunning Thrace and Macedonia with a large army, and trying to win them over; 3 his generals, too, with forces under them, were subduing other regions, and the greatest of them, Archelaüs, who with his fleet controlled the entire sea, was subjugating the Cyclades, and all the other islands which lie to the east of Cape Malea, and was in possession of Euboea itself, while from his head-quarters at Athens he was bringing into revolt from Rome the peoples of Greece as far as Thessaly, although he met with slight reverses at Chaeroneia. 4 For here he was confronted by Bruttius Sura, who was a lieutenant of Sentius the praetor of Macedonia, and a man of superior courage and prudence. This man, as Archelaüs came rushing like a torrent through Boeotia, opposed him most fiercely, and after thrice giving him battle at Chaeroneia, repulsed him, and drove him back to the sea. 5 But when Lucius Lucullus ordered him to give place to Sulla, who was coming, and to leave the conduct of the war to him, as the senate had voted, he at once abandoned Boeotia and marched back to Sentius, although his efforts were proving successful beyond hope, and although the nobility of his bearing was making Greece well-disposed towards a change of allegiance. However, these were the most brilliant achievements of Bruttius.
[Sull. 12.1] 12 1 As for Sulla, he at once received deputations and invitations from the other cities, but Athens was compelled by the tyrant Aristion to side with Mithridates. Against this city, therefore, Sulla led up all his forces, and investing the Piraeus, laid siege to it, bringing to bear upon it every sort of siege-engine, and making all sorts of assaults upon it. 2 And yet if he had been patient a little while, he might have captured the upper city without hazard, since it lacked the necessities of life and was already reduced by famine to the last extremity. But since he was eager to get back to Rome, and feared the spirit of revolution there, he ran many risks, fought many battles, and made great outlays that he might hasten on the war, in which, not to speak of his other munitions, the operation of the siege-engines called for ten thousand pairs of mules, which were employed daily for this service. 3 And when timber began to fail, owing to the destruction of many of the works, which broke down of their own weight, and to the burning of those which were continually smitten by the enemy’s fire-bolts, he laid hands upon the sacred groves, and ravaged the Academy, which was the most wooded of the city’s suburbs, as well as the Lyceum. And since he needed much money also for the war, he diverted to his uses the sacred treasures of Hellas, partly from Epidaurus, and partly from Olympia, sending for the most beautiful and most precious of the offerings there. 4 He wrote also to the Amphictyons at Delphi that it was better to have the treasures of the god sent to him; for he would either keep them more safely, or, if he spent them, would restore as much. And he sent Caphis, the Phocian, one of his friends, with the letter, bidding him receive each article by weight. Caphis came to Delphi, but was loth to touch the sacred objects, and shed many tears, in the presence of the Amphictyons, over the necessity of it. 5 And when some of them declared they heard the sound of the god’s lyre in the inner sanctuary, Caphis, either because he believed them, or because he wished to strike Sulla with superstitious fear, sent word to him about it. But Sulla wrote back jocosely, expressing his amazement that Caphis did not understand that singing was done in joy, not anger; his orders were therefore to take boldly, assured that the god was willing and glad to give.
[Sull. 12.6] 6 Accordingly, the rest of the treasures were sent away without the knowledge of the most, certainly, of the Greeks; but the silver jar, the only one of the royal gifts which still remained, was too large and heavy for any beast of burden to carry, and the Amphictyons were compelled to cut it into pieces. As they did so, they called to mind now Titus Flamininus and Manius Acilius, and now Aemilius Paulus, of whom one had driven Antiochus out of Greece, and the others had subdued in war the kings of Macedonia; these had not only spared the sanctuaries of the Greeks, but had even made additional gifts to them, and greatly increased their honour and dignity. 7 But these were lawful commanders of men who were self-restrained and had learned to serve their leaders without a murmur, and they were themselves kingly in spirit and simple in their personal expenses, and indulged in moderate and specified public expenditures, deeming it more disgraceful to flatter their soldiers than to fear their enemies; 8 the generals of this later time, however, who won their primacy by force, not merit, and who needed their armies for service against one another, rather than against the public enemy, were compelled to merge the general in the demagogue, and then, by purchasing the services of their soldiers with lavish sums to be spent on luxurious living, they unwittingly made their whole country a thing for sale, and themselves slaves of the basest men for the sake of ruling over the better. This was what drove out Marius, and then brought him back again against Sulla; this made Cinna the assassin of Octavius, and Fimbria of Flaccus. 9 And it was Sulla who, more than any one else, paved the way for these horrors, by making lavish expenditures upon the soldiers under his own command that he might corrupt and win over those whom others commanded, so that in making traitors of the rest, and profligates of his own soldiers, he had need of much money, and especially for this siege.
[Sull. 13.1] 13 1 For he was possessed by some dreadful and inexorable passion for the capture of Athens, either because he was fighting with a sort of ardour against the shadow of the city’s former glory, or because he was provoked to anger by the scurrilous abuse which had been showered from the walls upon himself and Metella by the tyrant Aristion, who always danced in mockery as he scoffed. This man’s spirit was compounded of licentiousness and cruelty; 2 he had made himself a sink for the worst of the diseases and passions of Mithridates; and in these her last days he had fixed himself, like a fatal malady, upon a city which had previously passed safely through countless wars, and many usurpations and seditions. This man, although at the time a bushel of wheat sold in the city for a thousand drachmas, and although men made food for themselves of the fever-few which grew on the acropolis, 3 and boiled down shoes and leather oil-flasks to eat, was himself continually indulging in drinking-bouts and revels by daylight, was dancing in armour and making jokes to deride the enemy, while he suffered the sacred lamp of the goddess to go out for lack of oil; and when the chief priestess begged him for a twelfth of a bushel of wheat, he sent her so much pepper; and when the senators and priests came to him in suppliant array, and entreated him to take pity on the city and come to terms with Sulla, he scattered them with a volley of arrows. 4 But after a long time, at last, with much ado, he sent out two or three of his fellow-revellers to treat for peace, to whom Sulla, when they made no demands which could save the city, but talked in lofty strains about Theseus and Eumolpus and the Persian wars, said: “Be off, my dear Sirs, and take these speeches with you; for I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn its history, but to subdue its rebels.”
[Sull. 14.1] 14 1 But at this juncture, as it is said, certain soldiers in the Cerameicus overheard some old men talking with one another, and abusing the tyrant because he did not guard the approaches to the wall at the Heptachalcum, at which point alone it was possible and easy for the enemy to get over. When this was reported to Sulla, 2 he did not make light of it, but went thither by night, and after seeing that the place could be taken, set himself to the work. And Sulla himself says, in his Memoirs, that Marcus Ateius was the first man to mount the wall, and that when an enemy confronted him, he gave him a downward cut on the helmet with his sword, and shattered the weapon; he did not, however, yield ground, but remained and held his own. At any rate, the city was taken at this point, as the oldest Athenians used to testify. 3 And Sulla himself, after he had thrown down and levelled with the ground the wall between the Piraïc and the Sacred Gate, led his army into the city at midnight. The sight of him was made terrible by blasts of many trumpets and bugles, and by the cries and yells of the soldiery now let loose by him for plunder and slaughter, and rushing through the narrow streets with drawn swords. There was therefore no counting of the slain, but their numbers are to this day determined only by the space that was covered with blood. 4 For without mention of those who were killed in the rest of the city, the blood that was shed in the market-place covered all the Cerameicus inside the Dipylon gate; nay, many say that it flowed through the gate and deluged the suburb. But although those who were thus slain were so many, there were yet more who slew themselves, out of yearning pity for their native city, which they thought was going to be destroyed. For this conviction made the best of them give up in despair and fear to survive, since they expected no humanity or moderation in Sulla. 5 However, partly at the instance of the exiles Meidias and Calliphon, who threw themselves at his feet in supplication, and partly because all the Roman senators who were in his following interceded for the city, being himself also by this time sated with vengeance, after some words in praise of the ancient Athenians, he said that he forgave a few for the sake of many, the living for the sake of the dead.
[Sull. 14.6] 6 He took Athens, as he says himself in his Memoirs, on the Calends of March, a day which corresponds very nearly with the first of the month Anthesterion. In this month, as it happens, the Athenians perform many rites commemorating the destruction and devastation caused by the flood, believing that the ancient deluge occurred at about this time. 7 On the capture of the town, the tyrant took refuge in the acropolis, and was besieged there by Curio, who was appointed to this task. He held out for a considerable time, but was driven by the pangs of thirst to give himself up. And the Deity at once gave a manifest token in the matter; for at the very hour of the day when Curio brought his prisoner down, clouds gathered in an open sky, and a quantity of rain fell and filled the acropolis with water. Not long after, Sulla took the Piraeus also, and burnt most of it, including the arsenal of Philo, a marvellous work.
[Sull. 15.1] 15 1 Meanwhile Taxiles, the general of Mithridates, had come down from Thrace and Macedonia with a hundred thousand footmen, ten thousand horse, and ninety scythe-bearing four-horse chariots, and summoned Archelaüs to join him. Archelaüs still lay with his fleet at Munychia, and was neither willing to quit the sea, nor eager to join battle with the Romans, but planned to protract the war and cut off their supplies. 2 But Sulla understood the situation much better than Archelaüs did, and therefore transferred his forces into Boeotia, away from regions that were far from fertile, and unable to maintain a population even in time of peace. Most people thought that he had erred in his calculations, because he had abandoned Attica, which was a rough country and ill-suited for cavalry movements, and thrown himself into the plains and open districts of Boeotia, although he saw that the strength of the Barbarians consisted in chariots and cavalry. 3 But in flying from scarcity and famine, as has been said, he was compelled to pursue the danger arising from battle. And furthermore, he was anxious about Hortensius, a bold and capable general, who was leading a force from Thessaly to Sulla while the Barbarians were closely watching for him in the passes. For these reasons Sulla transferred his army into Boeotia. But Hortensius was rescued by Caphis, a countryman of mine, and conducted by different routes, of which the Barbarians were ignorant, past Parnassus to a spot just below Tithora. This was not so large a city then as it is now, 4 but a fortress surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs, into which those of the Phocians who in ancient times fled before the advance of Xerxes betook themselves and were saved. Having encamped there, Hortensius repulsed the enemy by day, and at night descended to Patronis by difficult paths and made a junction with Sulla, who came to meet him with his army.
[Sull. 16.1] 16 1 When they had thus united their forces, they occupied a hill which rose out of the midst of the plains of Elatea, a fertile hill, thickly grown with trees, and supplied with water at its base. Philoboetus is its name, and its situation and natural advantages are most highly praised by Sulla. As they lay encamped here, they appeared to the enemy altogether few in numbers; for they were not more than fifteen hundred horse, and less than fifteen thousand foot. 2 Wherefore the rest of his generals overpowered the objections of Archelaüs and drew up for battle, filling the plain with their horses, chariots, shields, and bucklers.
[Sull. 16.3] The air could not contain the shouts and clamour of so many nations forming in array. At the same time also the pomp and ostentation of their costly equipment was not without its effect and use in exciting terror; indeed, the flashing of their armour, which was magnificently embellished with gold and silver, 3 and the rich colours of their Median and Scythian vests, intermingled with bronze and flashing steel, presented a flaming and fearful sight as they surged to and fro, so that the Romans huddled together behind their trenches, and Sulla, unable by any reasoning to remove their fear, and unwilling to force them into a fight from which they wanted to run away, had to sit still and endure as best he could the sight of the Barbarians insulting him with boasts and laughter. This, however, was of service to him above all else. 4 For owing to their contempt of him, his opponents lapsed into great disorder, since even at their best they were not obedient to their generals, owing to the great number in command. Few of them therefore consented to remain within their entrenchments, but the largest part of the throng was lured away by plunder and pillage, and was scattered about the country many days march from their camp. They are said to have destroyed the city of Panope, and to have sacked Lebadeia and despoiled its oracle, although none of their generals ordered them to do so.
[Sull. 16.5] 5 But Sulla, though chafing and fretting while cities were destroyed before his eyes, would not suffer his soldiers to be idle, but led them out and forced them to dig ditches and divert the Cephisus from its channel, giving no man a respite, and showing himself an inexorable chastiser of those who were remiss, in order that they might be worn out at their tasks and induced by their hardships to welcome danger. And so it fell out. 6 For on the third day of their drudgery, as Sulla passed by, they begged and clamoured to be led against the enemy. But Sulla said their words showed not a willingness to fight, but an unwillingness to labour; if, however, they were really disposed to fight, then he bade them take their arms and go at once yonder, pointing them to what had formerly been the acropolis of Parapotamii. 7 At this time, however, the city had been destroyed, and only a rocky and precipitous crest remained, separated from Mount Hedylium by the breadth of the river Assus, which then falls into the Cephisus at the very base of the mountain, becomes impetuous in its flow after the confluence, and makes the citadel a strong place for a camp. For this reason, and because he saw the Chalcaspides, or Bronze-shields, of the enemy pushing their way towards it, Sulla wished to occupy the place first; and he did occupy it, now that he found his soldiers eager for action. 8 And when Archelaüs, repulsed from this site, set out against Chaeroneia, and the Chaeroneians in Sulla’s army besought him not to abandon their city to its fate, he sent out Gabinius, one of his tribunes, with one legion, and let the Chaeroneians also go, who wished, but were unable, to get into the city before Gabinius. So efficient was he, and more eager to bring succour than those who begged that succour should be given. Juba, however, says it was not Gabinius, but Ericius, who was thus sent. At any rate, so narrowly did my native city escape its peril.
[Sull. 17.1] 17 1 From Lebadeia and the cave of Trophonius favourable utterances and oracles announcing victory were now sent out to the Romans. Of these the inhabitants of the country have more to say; but Sulla himself has written in the tenth book of his Memoirs, how Quintus Titius, a prominent man among the Romans doing business in Greece, came to him immediately after he had won his victory at Chaeroneia, with tidings that Trophonius predicted for him a second battle and victory in that neighbourhood within a short time. 2 And after him, a legionary soldier, Salvenius by name, brought him from the god a statement of the issue which affairs in Italy were going to have. But both agreed about the source of their oracle; for they said they had beheld one who in beauty and majesty was like unto Olympian Jove.
[Sull. 17.3] 3 Sulla now crossed the Assus, and after advancing to the foot of Mount Hedylium, encamped over against Archelaüs, who had thrown up strong entrenchments between Mounts Acontium and Hedylium, at the so called Assian plain. The spot in which he encamped, moreover, is to this day called Archelaüs, after him. After one day’s respite, Sulla left Murena behind with one legion and two cohorts, to obstruct the enemy if they attempted to draw up their forces, while he himself held sacrifices on the banks of the Cephisus, 4 and, when the rites were over, moved on towards Chaeroneia, to pick up the forces stationed there, and to reconnoitre Thurium, as it is called, which had been already occupied by the enemy. This is a conical-shaped hill with a craggy peak (we call it Orthopagus), and at its foot is the river Molus and a temple of Apollo Thurius. The god got this surname from Thuro, the mother of Chaeron, who was founder of Chaeroneia, according to tradition. 5 But some say that the cow which was given by Apollo to Cadmus as his guide, appeared there, and that the place was named as it is from her, “thor” being the Phoenician word for cow.
[Sull. 17.6] As Sulla drew near to Chaeroneia, the tribune who had been stationed in the city, with his men in full armour, came to meet him, carrying a wreath of laurel. 6 After Sulla had accepted this, greeted the soldiers, and animated them for the coming danger, two men of Chaeroneia accosted him, Homoloïchus and Anaxidamus, and engaged to cut off the troops in possession of Thurium if he would give them a few soldiers; for there was a path out of sight of the Barbarians, leading from the so called Petrachus along past the Museum to that part of Thurium which was over their heads, and by taking this path it would not be difficult, they said, to fall upon them and either stone them to death from above, or force them into the plain. 7 After Gabinius had borne testimony to the men’s courage and fidelity, Sulla ordered them to make the attempt, while he himself proceeded to form his line of battle, and to dispose his cavalry on either wing, taking command of the right himself, and assigning the left to Murena. His lieutenants, Galba and Hortensius, with cohorts of reserves, stationed themselves on the heights in the rear, to guard against attacks on the flanks. For the enemy were observed to be making their wing flexible and light for evolution with large bodies of horse and light infantry, purposing to extend it and envelop the Romans.
[Sull. 18.1] 18 1 Meanwhile the Chaeroneians, over whom Ericius had been placed in command by Sulla, made their way unnoticed around Thurium and then showed themselves suddenly, producing great confusion and rout among the Barbarians, and slaughter at one another’s hands for the most part. For they did not hold their ground, but rushed down the steeps, falling upon their own spears and crowding one another down the precipices, while their enemies pressed upon them from above and smote their exposed bodies, so that three thousand of them fell on Thurium. 2 Of the fugitives, some were met by Murena, who had already formed his array, and were cut off and slain; others pushed their way towards the camp of their friends, and falling pell-mell upon their lines, filled the greater part of them with terror and confusion, and inflicted a delay upon their generals which was especially harmful to them. For Sulla promptly charged upon them while they were in confusion, and by abridging the space between the armies with the speed of his approach, robbed the scythe-bearing chariots of their efficiency. 3 For these are of most avail after a long course, which gives them velocity and impetus for breaking through an opposing line but short starts are ineffectual and feeble, as in the case of missiles which do not get full propulsion. And this proved to be true now in the case of Barbarians. The first of their chariots were driven along feebly and engaged sluggishly, so that the Romans, after repulsing them, clapped their hands and laughed and called for more, as they are wont to do at the races in the circus. 4 Thereupon the infantry forces engaged, the Barbarians holding their pikes before them at full length, and endeavouring, by locking their shields together, to keep their line of battle intact; while the Romans threw down their javelins, drew their swords, and sought to dash the pikes aside, that they might get at their enemies as soon as possible, in the fury that possessed them. 5 For they saw drawn up in front of the enemy fifteen thousand slaves, whom the king’s generals had set free by proclamation in the cities and enrolled among the men-at arms. And a certain Roman centurion is reported to have said that it was only at the Saturnalia, so far as he knew, that slaves participated in the general license. 6 These men, however, owing to the depth and density of their array, and the unnatural courage with which they held their ground, were only slowly repulsed by the Roman men-at arms; but at last the fiery bolts and the javelins which the Romans in the rear ranks plied unsparingly, threw them into confusion and drove them back.
[Sull. 19.1] 19 1 Archelaüs now extended his right wing to envelop Sulla’s line, whereupon Hortensius sent his cohorts against him on a quick run, intending to attack his flank. But Archelaüs wheeled swiftly against him his two thousand horsemen, and Hortensius, forced aside by superior numbers, was keeping close to the hills, separating himself little by little from the main line, and getting surrounded by the enemy. 2 When Sulla learned of this, he came swiftly to his aid from the right wing, which was not yet engaged. But Archelaüs, guessing the truth from the dust raised by Sulla’s troops, gave Hortensius the go-by, and wheeling, set off for the right wing whence Sulla had come, thinking to surprise it without a commander. At the same time Murena also was attacked by Taxiles with his Bronze-shields, so that when shouts were borne to his ears from both places, and reëchoed by the surrounding hills, Sulla halted, and was at a loss to know in which of the two directions he ought to betake himself. 3 But having decided to resume his own post, he sent Hortensius with four cohorts to help Murena, while he himself, bidding the fifth cohort to follow, hastened to the right wing. This of itself had already engaged Archelaüs on equal terms, but when Sulla appeared, they drove the enemy back at all points, obtained the mastery, and pursued them to the river and Mount Acontium in a headlong flight. 4 Sulla, however, did not neglect Murena in his peril, but set out to aid the forces in that quarter; he saw, however, that they were victorious, and then joined in the pursuit. Many of the Barbarians, then, were slain in the plain, but most were cut to pieces as they rushed for their entrenchments, so that only ten thousand out of so many myriads made their escape into Chalcis. But Sulla says he missed only fourteen of his soldiers, and that afterwards, towards evening, two of these came in. 5 He therefore inscribed upon his trophies the names of Mars, Victory and Venus, in the belief that his success in the war was due no less to good fortune than to military skill and strength. This trophy of the battle in the plain stands on the spot where the troops of Archelaüs first gave way, by the brook Molus, but there is another planted on the crest of Thurium, to commemorate the envelopment of the Barbarians there, and it indicates in Greek letters that Homoloïchus and Anaxidamus were the heroes of the exploit. 6 The festival in honour of this victory was celebrated by Sulla in Thebes, where he prepared a stage near the fountain of Oedipus. But the judges were Greeks invited from the other cities, since towards the Thebans he was irreconcilably hostile. He also took away half of their territory and consecrated it to Pythian Apollo and Olympian Zeus, giving orders that from its revenues the moneys should be paid back to the gods which he had taken from them.
[Sull. 20.1] 20 1 After this, learning that Flaccus, a man of the opposite faction, had been chosen consul and was crossing the Ionian sea with an army, ostensibly against Mithridates, but really against himself, he set out towards Thessaly in order to meet him. But when he was come to the city of Meliteia, tidings reached him from many quarters that the regions behind him were ravaged again by an army of the king which was no smaller than the former. 2 For Dorylaüs, having put in at Chalcis with a large fleet, on which he brought eighty thousand of the best trained and disciplined men in the army of Mithridates, at once burst into Boeotia and occupied the country. He was eager to entice Sulla to battle, disregarding the protests of Archelaüs, and giving it out that in the previous battle so many myriads had not perished without treachery. 3 Sulla, however, turning swiftly back, showed Dorylaüs that Archelaüs was a man of prudence and best acquainted with the Roman valour, so that after a slight skirmish with Sulla near Tilphossium, he was first of those who thought it expedient not to decide the issue by a battle, but rather to wear out the war by dint of time and treasure. Nevertheless, Archelaüs was much encouraged by the nature of the country about Orchomenus, where they were encamped, since it was most favourable as a battle-field for an army superior in cavalry. 4 For of all the plains of Boeotia this is the largest and fairest, and beginning from the city of Orchomenus, it spreads out smooth and treeless as far as the marshes in which the river Melas loses itself. This rises close under the city of Orchomenus, and is the only Greek river that is copious and navigable at its sources; moreover, it increases towards the time of the summer solstice, like the Nile, and produces plants like those which grow there, only stunted and without fruit. 5 Its course is short, however, and the greater part of it disappears at once in blind and marshy lakes, while a small portion of it unites with the Cephisus, somewhere near the place in which the stagnant water is reputed to produce the famous reed for flutes.
[Sull. 21.1] 21 1 When the two armies had encamped near each other, Archelaüs lay still, but Sulla proceeded to dig trenches on either side, in order that, if possible, he might cut the enemy off from the solid ground which was favourable for the cavalry, and force them into the marshes. The enemy, however, would not suffer this, but when their generals sent them forth, charged impetuously and at full speed, so that not only Sulla’s labourers were dispersed, but also the greater part of the corps drawn up to protect them was thrown into confusion and fled. 2 Then Sulla threw himself from his horse, seized an ensign, and pushed his way through the fugitives against the enemy, crying: “For me, O Romans, an honourable death here; but you, when men ask you where you betrayed your commander, remember to tell them, at Orchomenus.” The fugitives rallied at these words, and two of the cohorts on his right wing came to his aid; these he led against the enemy and routed them. 3 Then he fell back a little distance, and after giving his men breakfast, again proceeded to fence the enemy’s entrenchments off with his ditches. But they attacked him again in better order than before, Diogenes, the step-son of Archelaüs, fought gallantly on their right wing, and fell gloriously, and their archers, being hard pressed by the Romans, so that they had no room to draw their bows, took their arrows by handfuls, struck with them as with swords, at close quarters, and tried to beat back their foes, but were finally shut up in their entrenchments, and had a miserable night of it with their slain and wounded. Next day Sulla again led his soldiers up to the enemy’s fortifications and continued trenching them off, 4 and when the greater part of them came out to give him battle, he engaged with them and routed them, and such was their panic that no resistance was made, and he took their camp by storm. The marshes were filled with their blood, and the lake with their dead bodies, so that even to this day many bows, helmets, fragments of steel breastplates, and swords of barbarian make are found embedded in the mud, although almost two hundred years have passed since this battle. Such, then, are the accounts given of the actions at Chaeroneia and Orchomenus.
[Sull. 22.1] 22 1 Now since Cinna and Carbo at Rome were treating the most eminent men with injustice and violence, many of these had fled from their tyranny and were repairing to Sulla’s camp as to a harbour of refuge, and in a little time he had about him the semblance of a senate. Metella, also, who had with difficulty stolen herself and her children away, came with tidings that his house and his villas had been burned by his enemies, and with entreaties that he would come to the help of his partisans at home. 2 But while he was in doubt what to do, and could neither consent to neglect his country when she was outraged, nor see his way clear to go away and leave unfinished so great a task as the war with Mithridates, there came to him a merchant of Delos, named Archelaüs, who secretly brought from Archelaüs the king’s general certain vague hopes and propositions. The matter was so welcome to Sulla that he was eager to have a personal conference with Archelaüs; 3 and they had a meeting on the sea-coast near Delium, where the temple of Apollo is. Archelaüs began the conference by urging Sulla to abandon Asia and Pontus and sail for the war in Rome, on condition of receiving money, triremes, and as large a force as he wished from the king. Sulla rejoined by bidding him take no further thought for Mithridates, but assume the crown himself in his stead, becoming an ally of the Romans, and surrendering to them his ships. 4 And when Archelaüs expressed his abhorrence of such treason, Sulla said: “So then, thou, Archelaüs who art a Cappadocian, and a slave of a barbarian king, or, if thou wilt, his friend, wilt not consent to a disgraceful deed for such great rewards; but to me, who am a Roman commander, and Sulla, thou darest to propose treachery? as if thou wert not that Archelaüs who fled from Chaeroneia with a few survivors out of one hundred and twenty thousand men, and who lay hid two days in the marshes of Orchomenus, and who left Boeotia impassable for the multitude of dead bodies!” 5 Upon this, Archelaüs changed his tone, and as a humble suppliant besought him to desist from the war and be reconciled with Mithridates. Sulla granted the request, and terms of agreement were made as follows: Mithridates was to renounce Asia and Paphlagonia, restore Bithynia to Nicomedes and Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, pay down to the Romans two thousand talents, and give them seventy bronze-armoured ships with their proper equipment; Sulla, on his part, was to confirm Mithridates in the rest of his dominions, and get him voted an ally of the Romans.
[Sull. 23.1] 23 1 When these agreements had been made, Sulla turned back and proceeded by way of Thessaly and Macedonia towards the Hellespont, having Archelaüs with him, and in honour. And when Archelaüs fell dangerously ill at Larissa, Sulla stopped his march, and cared for him as if he had been one of his own commanding officers. 2 This raised the suspicion that the action at Chaeroneia had not been fairly fought, as well as the fact that Sulla released the other friends of Mithridates whom he had taken captive, but put to death Aristion the tyrant alone, by poison, who was at enmity with Archelaüs; the strongest ground for the suspicion, however, was his gift to the Cappadocian of about two thousand acresb of land in Euboea, and his bestowing upon him the title of friend and ally of the Romans. At any rate, on these points Sulla defends himself in his Memoirs.
[Sull. 23.3] 3 At this time also ambassadors from Mithridates arrived, and when they declared that he accepted the other terms, but demanded that Paphlagonia be not taken away from him, and that as to the ships no agreement whatsoever should be made, Sulla flew into a passion and said: “What say ye? Mithridates maintains his claim to Paphlagonia, and refuses to give the ships, when I thought he would prostrate himself humbly before me if I should leave him but that right hand of his, with which he took the lives of so many Romans? 4 However, he will quickly talk in another strain after I have crossed into Asia; now he sits in Pergamum and directs a war which he has not seen.” The ambassadors, accordingly, were frightened, and held their peace; but Archelaüs entreated Sulla, and tried to soften his anger, laying hold of his right hand and weeping. And finally he obtained Sulla’s consent to send him in person to Mithridates; for he said that he would have the peace ratified on Sulla’s terms, or, if he could not persuade the king, would kill himself. 5 Upon these assurances Sulla sent him away, and then himself invaded the country of the Maedi, and after ravaging most of it, turned back again into Macedonia, and received Archelaüs at Philippi. Archelaüs brought him word that all was well, but that Mithridates insisted on a conference with him. 6 Fimbria was chiefly responsible for this, who, after killing Flaccus, the consul of the opposite faction, and overpowering the generals of Mithridates, was marching against the king himself. For this terrified Mithridates, and he chose rather to seek the friendship of Sulla.
[Sull. 24.1] 24 1 They met, accordingly, at Dardanus, in the Troad, Mithridates having two hundred ships there, equipped with oars, twenty thousand men-at arms from his infantry force, six thousand horse, and a throng of scythe-bearing chariots; Sulla, on the other hand, having four cohorts and two hundred horse. When Mithridates came towards him and put out his hand, Sulla asked him if he would put a stop to the war on the terms which Archelaüs had made, and as the king was silent, Sulla said: “But surely it is the part of suppliants to speak first, while victors need only to be silent.” 2 Then Mithridates began a defense of himself, and tried to shift the blame for the war partly upon the gods, partly upon the Romans themselves. But Sulla cut him short, saying that he had long ago heard from others, but now knew of himself, that Mithridates was a very powerful orator, since he had not been at a loss for plausible arguments to defend such baseness and injustice as his. 3 Then he reproached him bitterly and denounced him for what he had done, and asked him again if he would keep the agreements made through Archelaüs. And when he said that he would, then Sulla greeted him with an embrace and a kiss, and later, bringing to him Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes the kings, he reconciled him with them. Mithridates, accordingly, after handing over to Sulla seventy ships and five hundred archers, sailed away to Pontus.
[Sull. 24.4] 4 But Sulla perceived that his soldiers were incensed at the peace which he had made; they thought it a terrible thing to see the most hostile of kings, who had caused one hundred and fifty thousand of the Romans in Asia to be massacred in a single day to go sailing off with wealth and spoils from Asia, which he had for four years continued to plunder and levy taxes on. He therefore defended himself to them by saying that he would not have been able to carry on war with Mithridates and Fimbria too, if they had both joined forces against him.
[Sull. 25.1] 25 1 Then he set out from thence against Fimbria, who was encamped near Thyateira, and halting his army near by, began to fortify his camp. But the soldiers of Fimbria came forth from their camp without any armour on, and welcomed Sulla’s soldiers, and joined them eagerly in their labours, and when Fimbria saw this change in their allegiance, fearing that Sulla was irreconcileable, he laid violent hands on himself in the camp.
[Sull. 25.2] 2 Sulla now laid a public fine upon Asia of twenty thousand talents, and utterly ruined individual families by the insolent outrages of the soldiers quartered on them. For orders were given that the host should give his guest four tetradrachms a day, and furnish him, and as many friends as he might wish to invite, with a supper; and that a military tribune should receive fifty drachmas a day, and two suits of clothing, one to wear when he was at home, and another when he went abroad.
[Sull. 26.1] 26 1 Having put to sea with all his ships from Ephesus, on the third day he came to anchor in Piraeus. He was now initiated into the mysteries, and seized for himself the library of Apellicon the Teian, in which were most of the treatises of Aristotle and Theophrastus, at that time not yet well known to the public. But it is said that after the library was carried to Rome, Tyrannio the grammarian arranged most of the works in it, and that Andronicus the Rhodian was furnished by him with copies of them, and published them, and drew up the lists now current. 2 The old Peripatetics were evidently of themselves accomplished and learned men, but they seem to have had neither a large nor an exact acquaintance with the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus, because the estate of Neleus of Scepsis, to whom Theophrastus bequeathed his books, came into the hands of careless and illiterate people.
[Sull. 26.3] 3 While Sulla was tarrying at Athens, his feet were attacked by numbness and a feeling of heaviness, which Strabo says is premonitory gout. He therefore crossed the straits to Aedepsus and used the hot waters there, taking a holiday at the same time, and passing his time pleasantly with the theatrical artists. Once, as he was walking along the seashore, certain fishermen brought him some very fine fish. Being delighted with their gift, and learning that they were from Halae, “What!” said he, “is any man of Halae still alive?” 4 For when he was pursuing the enemy after his victory at Orchomenus, he had destroyed three cities of Boeotia together, Anthedon, Larymna, and Halae. The men were speechless with terror, but Sulla smiled and bade them depart in peace, since they had brought with them no mean or despicable intercessors. The men of Halae say that this gave them courage to go back again in a body to their city.
[Sull. 27.1] 27 1 And now Sulla, having passed through Thessaly and Macedonia down to the sea, was preparing to cross from Dyrrhachium to Brundisium with twelve hundred ships. Near by is Apollonia, and in its vicinity is the Nymphaeum, a sacred precinct, which sends forth in various places from its green dell and meadows, streams of perpetually flowing fire. 2 Here, they say, a satyr was caught asleep, such an one as sculptors and painters represent, and brought to Sulla, where he was asked through many interpreters who he was. And when at last he uttered nothing intelligible, but with difficulty emitted a hoarse cry that was something between the neighing of a horse and the bleating of a goat, Sulla was horrified, and ordered him out of his sight.
[Sull. 27.3] 3 When Sulla was about to transport his soldiers, and was in fear lest, when they had reached Italy, they should disperse to their several cities, in the first place, they took an oath of their own accord to stand by him, and to do no damage to Italy without his orders; and then, seeing that he needed much money, they made a free-will offering and contribution, each man according to his abundance. Sulla, however, would not accept their offering, but after thanking them and rousing their courage, crossed over to confront, as he himself says, fifteen hostile commanders with four hundred and fifty cohorts. But the Deity gave him most unmistakeable foretokens of his successes. 4 For after he had sacrificed at once where he landed at Tarentum, the victim’s liver was seen to have an impression of a wreath of laurel, with two fillets hanging from it.
[Sull. 27.4] And a little while before he crossed over from Greece, there were seen on Mount Tifatum in Campania, in the day time, two great he-goats fighting together, and doing everything that men do when they fight a battle. But it proved to be an apparition, and gradually rising from earth it dispersed itself generally in the air, like vague phantoms, and then vanished from sight. 5 And not long after, in this very place, when Marius the younger and Norbanus the consul led large forces up against him, Sulla, without either giving out an order of battle or forming his own army in companies, but taking advantage of a vigorous general alacrity and a transport of courage in them, routed the enemy and shut up Norbanus in the city of Capua, after slaying seven thousand of his men. 6 It was on account of this success, he says, that his soldiers did not disperse into their several cities, but held together and despised their opponents, though these were many times more numerous.
[Sull. 27.6] He says, moreover, that at Silvium, a servant of Pontius met him, in an inspired state, declaring that he brought him from Bellona triumph in war and victory, but that if he did not hasten, the Capitol would be burnt; and this actually happened, he says, on the day which the man foretold, namely, the sixth day of Quintilis, which we now call July. 7 And still further, at Fidentia, when Marcus Lucullus, one of Sulla’s commanders, with sixteen cohorts confronted fifty cohorts of the enemy, although he had confidence in the readiness of his soldiers, still, as most of them were without arms, he hesitated to attack. But while he was waiting and deliberating, from the neighbouring plain, which was a meadow, a gentle breeze brought a quantity of flowers and scattered them down on his army; they settled of their own accord and enveloped the shields and helmets of the soldiers, so that to the enemy these appeared to be crowned with garlands. 8 This circumstance made them more eager for the fray, and they joined battle, won the victory, killed eighteen thousand of the enemy, and took their camp. This Lucullus was a brother of the Lucullus who afterwards subdued Mithridates and Tigranes.
[Sull. 28.1] 28 1 But Sulla, seeing that his enemies still surrounded him on all sides with many armies and large forces, had recourse to craft as well as force, and invited Scipio, the other consul, to make terms of peace. 2 He accepted the proposal, and several meetings and conferences were held; but Sulla continually interposed some pretext for gaining time, and gradually corrupted Scipio’s soldiers by means of his own, who were practised in deceit and every kind of jugglery, like their general himself. For they entered the camp of their enemies, mingled freely with them, and gradually won them over to Sulla’s cause, some at once with money, others with promises, and others still with persuasive flatteries. 3 And finally, when Sulla drew near with twenty cohorts, his men greeted those of Scipio, who answered their greetings and went over to them. Scipio, who was left alone, was taken in his tent, but dismissed; while Sulla, who had used his twenty cohorts as decoy-birds to catch the forty cohorts of the enemy, led them all back to his camp. It was on this occasion, too, that Carbo is said to have remarked that in making war upon the fox and the lion in Sulla, he was more annoyed by the fox.
[Sull. 28.4] 4 After this, at Signia, Marius, with eighty-five cohorts, challenged Sulla to battle. Now Sulla was very eager to have the issue settled on that day; for he had seen a vision in his dreams, as follows. He thought he saw the elder Marius, who was long since dead, advising his son Marius to beware of the ensuing day, since it would bring him a great calamity. For this reason, then, Sulla was eager to fight a battle, and was trying to get Dolabella, who was encamped at some distance, to join him. 5 But the enemy beset the roads and hemmed Sulla in, and his soldiers were worn out with fighting to open a passage. Much rain also came upon them while they were at work and added to their distress. The tribunes therefore came to Sulla and begged him to defer the battle, showing him the soldiers prostrated with weariness and resting on their shields, which they had laid upon the ground. 6 Sulla yielded reluctantly, and gave orders to pitch a camp, but just as his men were beginning to dig a trench and throw up the rampart before it, Marius attacked them confidently, riding ahead of his lines, and hoping to scatter his enemies while they were in disorder and confusion. There the Deity fulfilled the words which Sulla had heard in his dreams. For Sulla’s rage imparted itself to his soldiers, and leaving off their work, they planted their javelins in the trench, drew their swords, and with a general shout came to close quarters with their enemies. 7 These did not hold their ground long, but took to flight, and were slain in great numbers. Marius fled to Praeneste, but found the gate already closed. A rope was thrown down to him, however, and after fastening this around his waist, he was hoisted to the top of the wall. But there are some who say, and Fenestella is one of these, that Marius knew nothing of the battle, but was forced by loss of sleep and weariness to cast himself upon the ground in a shady place when the signal for battle was given, and there gave way to sleep, and was then roused with difficulty when the rout took place. 8 In this battle Sulla says he lost only twenty-three men, but killed twenty thousand of the enemy, and took eight thousand prisoners. His other plans were carried out with like success by his generals, Pompey, Crassus, Metellus, and Servilius. For with few or no reverses these annihilated large forces of the enemy, so that Carbo, the chief supporter of the opposite faction, ran away from his own army by night, and sailed off to Libya.
[Sull. 29.1] 29 1 In Sulla’s last struggle, however, Telesinus the Samnite, like a third wrestler who sits by to contend with a weary victor, came near tripping and throwing him at the gates of Rome. For he had collected a large force, and was hastening, together with Lamponius the Lucanian, to Praeneste, in order to relieve Marius from the siege. 2 But when he learned that Sulla to his front, and Pompey to his rear, were hurrying up against him, since he was being hemmed in before and behind, valiant and highly experienced soldier that he was, he broke camp by night, and marched with all his army against Rome itself. And he came within a little of breaking into the city in its unguarded state; indeed, he was only nine furlongs from the Colline gate when he bivouacked against it, highly encouraged and elated with hopes at the thought of having outgeneralled so many great commanders. 3 And when, at day-break, the noblest youth of the city rode out against him, he overwhelmed many of them, including Appius Claudius, a man of high birth and character. There was a tumult in the city, naturally, and shrieking of women, and running hither and thither, as though the city were taken by storm, when Balbus, sent forward by Sulla, was first seen riding up at full speed with seven hundred horsemen. He paused just long enough to let the sweat of the horses dry off, and then quickly bridled them again and attacked the enemy.
[Sull. 29.4] 4 At this juncture, Sulla also made his appearance, and ordering his vanguard to take food at once, proceeded to form them in order of battle. Dolabella and Torquatus earnestly besought him to wait a while, and not to hazard the supreme issue with his men fatigued and spent; for they were to contend not with Carbo and Marius, but with Samnites and Lucanians, the most inveterate enemies of Rome, and the most warlike of peoples. But he put them by, and commanded the trumpets to sound the charge, though it was now getting on towards four o’clock in the afternoon. 5 In the struggle which followed, and no other was so fierce, the right wing, where Crassus was posted, was brilliantly successful; but the left was hard pressed and in a sorry plight, when Sulla came to its assistance, mounted on a white horse that was mettlesome and very swift. By this horse two of the enemy recognised him, and poised their spears for the cast. Sulla himself, now, did not notice this, but his groom did, and with a cut of the lash succeeded in sending Sulla’s horse along so that the spear-heads just grazed its tail and fixed themselves in the ground. 6 There is also a story that Sulla had a little golden image of Apollo from Delphi which he always carried in his bosom when he was in battle, but that on this occasion he took it out and kissed it affectionately, saying: “O Pythian Apollo, now that thou hast in so many struggles raised the fortunate Cornelius Sulla to glory and greatness, can it be that thou hast brought him to the gates of his native city only to cast him down there, to perish most shamefully with his fellow-countrymen?” 7 Thus invoking the god, they say, he entreated some of his men, threatened others, and laid hands on others still; but at last his left wing was completely shattered, and with the fugitives he sought refuge in his camp, after losing many friends and acquaintances. 8 Not a few also of those who had come out of the city to see the battle were trodden under foot and killed, so that it was thought that all was over with the city, and that the siege of Marius in Praeneste was all but raised; indeed many of the fugitives made their way thither and urged Lucretius Ofella, who had been appointed to conduct the siege, to break camp with all speed, since Sulla had fallen, and Rome was in the hands of the enemy.
[Sull. 30.1] 30 1 But when the night was now far advanced, messengers came to the camp of Sulla from Crassus, to fetch supper for him and his soldiers; for after conquering the enemy, he had pursued them into Antemnae, and was encamped before that city. When, therefore, Sulla learned this, and also that the greater part of the enemy had been destroyed, he came to Antemnae at break of day. There three thousand of the inhabitants sent a deputation to him to sue for mercy, and he promised them safety if they would do some mischief to the rest of his enemies before coming to him. 2 So they, trusting to his promise, attacked the rest of the people in the city, and many were slain by one another’s hands. However, the survivors of both parties alike, to the number of six thousand, were collected by Sulla in the circus at Rome, and then the senate was summoned by him to meet in the temple of Bellona, and at one and the same moment he himself began to speak in the senate, and those assigned to the task began to cut to pieces the six thousand in the circus. 3 The shrieks of such a multitude, who were being massacred in a narrow space, filled the air, of course, and the senators were dumbfounded; but Sulla, with the calm and unmoved countenance with which he had begun to speak, ordered them to listen to his words and not concern themselves with what was going on outside, for it was only that some criminals were being admonished, by his orders.
[Sull. 30.4] 4 This gave even the dullest Roman to understand that, in the matter of tyranny, there had been an exchange, but not a deliverance. Marius the elder, at any rate, had been naturally harsh at the outset, and power had intensified, not altered, his disposition; but Sulla had used his good fortune moderately, at first, and like a statesman, and had led men to expect in him a leader who was attached to the aristocracy, and at the same time helpful to the common people. 5 Furthermore, from his youth up he had been of a merry temper, and easily moved to tears of pity. Naturally, therefore, his conduct fixed a stigma upon offices of great power, which were thought to work a change in men’s previous characters, and render them capricious, vain, and cruel. However, whether this is a change and reversal of nature, brought about by fortune, or rather a revelation, when a man is in authority, of underlying baseness, were matter for determination in some other treatise.
[Sull. 31.1] 31 1 Sulla now busied himself with slaughter, and murders without number or limit filled the city. Many, too, were killed to gratify private hatreds, although they had no relations with Sulla, but he gave his consent in order to gratify his adherents. At last one of the younger men, Caius Metellus, made bold to ask Sulla in the senate what end there was to be of these evils, and how far he would proceed before they might expect such doings to cease. 2 “We do not ask thee,” he said, “to free from punishment those whom thou hast determined to slay, but to free from suspense those whom thou hast determined to save.” And when Sulla answered that he did not yet know whom he would spare, “Well, then,” said Metellus in reply, “let us know whom thou intendest to punish.” This Sulla said he would do. 3 Some, however, say that it was not Metellus, but Fufidius, one of Sulla’s fawning creatures, who made this last speech to him. Be that as it may, Sulla at once proscribed eighty persons, without communicating with any magistrate; and in spite of the general indignation, after a single day’s interval, he proscribed two hundred and twenty others, and then on the third day, as many more. 4 Referring to these measures in a public harangue, he said that he was proscribing as many as he could remember, and those who now escaped his memory, he would proscribe at a future time. He also proscribed any one who harboured and saved a proscribed person, making death the punishment for such humanity, without exception of brother, son, or parents, but offering any one who slew a proscribed person two talents as a reward for this murderous deed, even though a slave should slay his master, or a son his father. And what seemed the greatest injustice of all, he took away the civil rights from the sons and grandsons of those who had been proscribed, and confiscated the property of all. 5 Moreover, proscriptions were made not only in Rome, but also in every city of Italy, and neither temple of God, nor hearth of hospitality, nor paternal home was free from the stain of bloodshed, but husbands were butchered in the embraces of their wedded wives, and sons in the arms of their mothers. Those who fell victims to political resentment and private hatred were as nothing compared with those who were butchered for the sake of their property, nay, even the executioners were prompted to say that his great house killed this man, his garden that man, his warm baths another. 6 Quintus Aurelius, a quiet and inoffensive man, who thought his only share in the general calamity was to condole with others in their misfortunes, came into the forum and read the list of the proscribed, and finding his own name there, said, “Ah! woe is me! my Alban estate is prosecuting me.” And he had not gone far before he was dispatched by some one who had hunted him down.
[Sull. 32.1] 32 1 Meanwhile Marius the younger, at the point of being captured, slew himself; and Sulla, coming to Praeneste, at first gave each man there a separate trial before he executed him, but afterwards, since time failed him, gathered them all together in one place — there were twelve thousand of them — and gave orders to slaughter them, his host alone receiving immunity. But this man, with a noble spirit, told Sulla that he would never owe his safety to the slayer of his country, and joining his countrymen of his own accord, was cut down with them. 2 But that which Lucius Catiline did was thought to be most monstrous of all. This man, namely, had killed his brother before the civil struggle was decided, and now asked Sulla to proscribe the man, as one still living; and he was proscribed. Then Catiline, returning this favour of Sulla’s, killed a certain Marcus Marius, one of the opposite faction, and brought his head to Sulla as he was sitting in the forum, and then going to the lustral water of Apollo which was near, washed the blood off his hands.
[Sull. 33.1] 33 1 But besides his massacres, the rest of Sulla’s proceedings also gave offence. For he proclaimed himself dictator, reviving this particular office after a lapse of a hundred and twenty years. Moreover, an act was passed granting him immunity for all his past acts, and for the future, power of life and death, of confiscation, of colonization, of founding or demolishing cities, and of taking away or bestowing kingdoms at his pleasure. 2 He conducted the sales of confiscated estates in such arrogant and imperious fashion, from the tribunal where he sat, that his gifts excited more odium than his robberies. He bestowed on handsome women, musicians, comic actors, and the lowest of freedmen, the territories of nations and the revenues of cities, and women were married against their will to some of his favourites. 3 In the case of Pompey the Great, at least, wishing to establish relationship with him, he ordered him to divorce the wife he had, and then gave him in marriage Aemilia, daughter of Scaurus and his own wife Metella, whom he tore away from Manius Glabrio when she was with child by him; and the young woman died in childbirth at the house of Pompey. 4 Lucretius Ofella, who had reduced Marius by siege, gave himself out as a candidate for the consulship, and Sulla at first tried to stop him; but when Ofella came down into the forum with a large and eager following, he sent one of the centurions in his retinue and slew him, himself sitting on a tribunal in the temple of Castor and beholding the murder from above. The people in the forum seized the centurion and brought him before the tribunal, but Sulla bade them cease their clamour, and said that he himself had ordered this deed, and commanded them to let the centurion go.
[Sull. 34.1] 34 1 His triumph, however, which was imposing from the costliness and rarity of the royal spoils, had a greater ornament in the noble spectacle of the exiles. For the most distinguished and influential of the citizens, crowned with garlands, followed in the procession, calling Sulla their saviour and father, since indeed it was through him that they were returning to their native city and bringing with them their wives and children. 2 And when at last the whole spectacle was over, he gave an account of his achievements in a speech to the people, enumerating the instances of his good fortune with no less emphasis than his deeds of valour, and finally, in view of these, he ordered that he receive the surname of Fortunate (for this is what the word “Felix” most nearly means).
An inscription of Sulla’s in the Tuscan town of Chiusi, the ancient Clusium:
[L(ucio)] CORNELIO L[uci] [F(ilio)] SVLLAE FEELIC[i]c DIC[tatori]
“To Lucius Cornelius (the son of Lucius) Sulla Felix, the Dictator.”
[Sull. 34.3] But he himself, in writing to the Greeks on official business, styled himself Epaphroditus, or Favourite of Venus, and on his trophies in our country his name is thus inscribed: Lucius Cornelius Sulla Epaphroditus. 3 Besides this, when Metella bore him twin children, he named the male child Faustus, and the female Fausta; for the Romans call what is auspicious and joyful, “faustum.” And to such an extent did he put more confidence in his good fortunes than in his achievements, that, although he had slain great numbers of the citizens, and introduced great innovations and changes in the government of the city, he laid down his office of dictator, and put the consular elections in the hands of the people; and when they were held, he did not go near them himself, but walked up and down the forum like a private man, exposing his person freely to all who wished to call him to account. 4 Contrary to his wishes, a certain bold enemy of his was likely to be chosen consul, Marcus Lepidus, not through his own efforts, but owing to the success which Pompey had in soliciting votes for him from the people. 5 And so, when Sulla saw Pompey going away from the polls delighted with his victory, he called him to him, and said: “What a fine victory this is of thine, young man, to elect Lepidus in preference to Catulus, the most unstable instead of the best of men! Now, surely, it is high time for thee to be watchful, after strengthening thine adversary against thyself.” And in saying this, Sulla was something of a prophet; for Lepidus speedily waxed insolent and went to war with Pompey and his party.
[Sull. 35.1] 35 1 On consecrating the tenth of all his substance to Hercules, Sulla feasted the people sumptuously, and his provision for them was so much beyond what was needed that great quantities of meats were daily cast into the river, and wine was drunk that was forty years old and upwards. 2 In the midst of the feasting, which lasted many days, Metella lay sick and dying. And since the priests forbade Sulla to go near her, or to have his house polluted by her funeral, he sent her a bill of divorce, and ordered her to be carried to another house while she was still living. In doing this, he observed the strict letter of the law, out of superstition; but the law limiting the expense of the funeral, which law he had himself introduced, he transgressed, and spared no outlays. 3 He transgressed also his own ordinances limiting the cost of banquets, when he tried to assuage his sorrow by drinking parties and convivial banquets, where extravagance and ribaldry prevailed.
[Sull. 35.4] A few months afterwards there was a gladiatorial spectacle, and since the places for men and women in the theatre were not yet separated, but still promiscuous, it chanced that there was sitting near Sulla a woman of great beauty and splendid birth; 4 she was a daughter of Messala, a sister of Hortensius the orator, and her name was Valeria, and so it happened that she had recently been divorced from her husband. As she passed along behind Sulla, she rested her hand upon him, plucked off a bit of nap from his mantle, and then proceeded to her own place. When Sulla looked at her in astonishment, she said: “It’s nothing of importance, Dictator, but I too wish to partake a little in thy felicity.” 5 Sulla was not displeased at hearing this, nay, it was at once clear that his fancy was tickled, for he secretly sent and asked her name, and inquired about her family and history. Then followed mutual glances, continual turnings of the face to gaze, interchanges of smiles, and at last a formal compact of marriage. All this was perhaps blameless on her part, but Sulla, even though she was ever so chaste and reputable, did not marry her from any chaste and worthy motive; he was led away, like a young man, by looks and languishing airs, through which the most disgraceful and shameless passions are naturally excited.
[Sull. 36.1] 36 1 However, even though he had such a wife at home, he consorted with actresses, harpists, and theatrical people, drinking with them on couches all day long. For these were the men who had most influence with him now: Roscius the comedian, Sorex the archmime, and Metrobius the impersonator of women, for whom, though past his prime, he continued up to the last to be passionately fond, and made no denial of it. 2 By this mode of life he aggravated a disease which was insignificant in its beginnings, and for a long time he knew not that his bowels were ulcerated. This disease corrupted his whole flesh also, and converted it into worms, so that although many were employed day and night in removing them, what they took away was as nothing compared with the increase upon him, but all his clothing, baths, hand-basins, and food, were infected with that flux of corruption, so violent was its discharge. 3 Therefore he immersed himself many times a day in water to cleanse and scour his person. But it was of no use; for the change gained upon him rapidly, and the swarm of vermin defied all purification.
[Sull. 36.4] We are told that in very ancient times, Acastus the son of Pelias was thus eaten of worms and died, and in later times, Alcman the lyric poet, Pherecydes the theologian, Callisthenes of Olynthus, who was kept closely imprisoned, as also Mucius the jurist; 4 and if mention is to be made of men who no excellence to commend them, but were notorious for other reasons, it is said that the runaway slave who headed the servile war in Sicily, Eunus by name, was taken to Rome after his capture, and died there of this disease.
[Sull. 37.1] 37 1 Sulla not only foresaw his own death, but may be said to have written about it also. For he stopped writing the twenty-second book of his Memoirs two days before he died, and he there says that the Chaldaeans foretold him that, after an honourable life, he was to end his days at the height of his good fortunes. 2 He says also that his son, who had died a little while before Metella, appeared to him in his dreams, clad in mean attire, and besought his father to pursue an end to anxious thoughts, and come with him to his mother Metella, there to live in peace and quietness with her. However, he did not cease to transact the public business. 3 For instance, ten days before he died, he reconciled the opposing factions in Dicaearchia, and prescribed a code of laws for their conduct of the city’s government; and one day before he died, on learning that the magistrate there, Granius, refused to pay a debt he owed the public treasury, in expectation of his death, he summoned him to his room, stationed his servants about him, and ordered them to strangle him; but with the strain which he put upon his voice and body, he ruptured his abscess and lost a great quantity of blood. 4 In consequence of this his strength failed, and after a night of wretchedness, he died, leaving two young children by Metella. For it was after his death that Valeria gave birth to a daughter, who was called Postuma, this being the name which the Romans give to children who are born after their father’s death.
[Sull. 38.1] 38 1 Many now joined themselves eagerly to Lepidus, purposing to deprive Sulla’s body of the usual burial honours; but Pompey, although offended at Sulla (for he alone, of all his friends, was not mentioned in his will), diverted some from their purpose by his kindly influence and entreaties, and others by his threats, and then conveyed the body to Rome, and secured for it an honourable as well as a safe interment. 2 And it is said that the women contributed such a vast quantity of spices for it, that, apart from what was carried on two hundred and ten litters, a large image of Sulla himself, and another image of a lictor, was moulded out of costly frankincense and cinnamon. The day was cloudy in the morning, and the expectation was that it would rain, but at last, at the ninth hour, the corpse was placed upon the funeral pyre. 3 Then a strong wind smote the pyre, and roused a mighty flame, and there was just time to collect the bones for burial, while the pyre was smouldering and the fire was going out, when a heavy rain began to fall, which continued till night. Therefore his good fortune would seem to have lasted to the very end, and taken part in his funeral rites. 4 At any rate, his monument stands in the Campus Martius, and the inscription on it, they say, is one which he wrote for it himself, and the substance of it is, that no friend ever surpassed him in kindness, and no enemy in mischief.

## Comparison of Lysander and Sulla

[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 1.1] 476 1 1 And now since we have completed this Life also, let us come at once to the Comparison. In this respect, then, they were alike, namely, that both were founders of their own greatness; but it was a peculiar virtue in Lysander that he obtained all his high offices with the consent of his fellow-citizens, and when affairs were in a sound condition; he did not force anything from them against their will, nor did he acquire any power which was contrary to the laws.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 1.2] 2 “But in a time of sedition, the base man too is in honour,”
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 1.3] 476 and so in Rome at that time, since the people was corrupt and their government in a distempered state, men of various origin rose to power. And it was no wonder that Sulla held sway, when such men as Glaucia and Saturninus drove such men as Metellus from the city, when sons of consuls were butchered in assemblies, when silver and gold purchased arms and men to wield them, and laws were enacted with fire and sword in defiance of all opposition. 3 Now I do not blame the man who, in such a state of affairs, forced his way to supreme power; but I cannot regard his becoming first man, with when the city was in such an evil plight, as a proof that he was also the best man. Whereas Lysander, since Sparta was at the height of good government and sobriety when she sent him forth upon the greatest commands and undertakings, was virtually decided to be first of her first men, and best of her best. 4 Lysander, therefore, though he often surrendered his power into the hands of his fellow-citizens, as often received it back again, since the honour accorded to virtue continued to rank highest in the state; but Sulla, when he had once been chosen leader of an army, remained in arms for ten years together, making himself now consul, and now dictator, but always being an usurper.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 2.1] 2 1 It is true, indeed, that Lysander attempted, as I have said, to change the form of government, but it was by mild and more legal methods than Sulla’s; by persuasion, namely, not by force of arms, nor by subverting everything at once, as Sulla did, but by amending merely the appointment of the kings. And it seemed but natural justice, in a way, that the best of the best should rule in a city which had the leadership in Hellas by virtue of his excellence, and not of his noble birth. 2 For just as a hunter looks for a dog, and not the whelp of a certain bitch, and a horseman for a horse, and not the foal of a certain mare (for what if the foal should prove to be a mule?), so the statesman makes an utter mistake if he enquires, not what sort of a man the ruler is, but from whom he is descended. And indeed the Spartans themselves deposed some of their kings, for the reason that they were not kingly men, but insignificant nobodies. And if vice, even in one of ancient family, is dishonourable, then it must be virtue itself, and not good birth, that makes virtue honourable.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 2.3] 3 Moreover, the acts of injustice which one wrought, were in behalf of his friends; while the other’s extended to his friends. For it is generally agreed that Lysander committed the most of his transgressions for the sake of his comrades, and that most of his massacres were perpetrated to maintain their power and sovereignty; 4 but Sulla cut down the number of Pompey’s soldiers out of jealousy, and tried to take away from Dolabella the naval command which he had given him, and when Lucretius Ofella sued for the consulship as a reward for many great services, ordered him to be slain before his eyes, causing all men to regard him with fear and horror because of his murdering his dearest friends.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 3.1] 3 1 Still further, in their pursuit of riches and pleasures we discover that the purpose of one was more befitting a commander, that of the other more characteristic of a tyrant. Lysander appears to have perpetrated no act of wantonness or youthful folly while he enjoyed such great authority and power, nay, if ever man did, he avoided the praise and reproach of the proverb: “Lions at home, but foxes abroad”; so sober, Spartan, and restrained was the way of life which he everywhere manifested. 2 But Sulla allowed neither the poverty of his youth to set bounds to his desires, nor the years of his old age, but continued to introduce marriage and sumptuary laws for the citizens, while he himself was living in lewdness and adultery, as Sallust says. In these courses he so beggared and emptied the city of her wealth that he sold to allied and friendly cities their freedom and independence for money, although he was daily confiscating and selling at public auction the wealthiest and greatest estates. 3 Nay, there was no measuring what he lavishly squandered and threw away upon his flatterers. 477 For what calculation or economy could be expected in his convivial associations and delights, when, on a public occasion, with the people standing about, at the sale of a large property, he ordered the crier to knock it down to one of his friends at a nominal price, and when another bidder raised the price and the crier announced the advance, he flew into a rage, saying: “It is a dreadful wrong, my dear citizens, and a piece of usurpation, that I cannot dispose of my own spoils as I wish.” 4 But Lysander sent home for public use even the presents which had been given to him along with the rest of his spoils. Not that I commend what he did; for he, perhaps, by his acquisition of money for Sparta, injured her more than Sulla injured Rome by robbing her of it; but I offer this as a proof of the man’s indifference to riches. 5 Moreover, each had a peculiar experience with his own city. Sulla, who knew no restraint in his extravagance, tried to bring the citizens into ways of sobriety; while Lysander filled his city with the passions to which he himself was a stranger. The former erred, therefore, in falling below the standard of his own laws; the latter, in causing the citizens to fall below his own standard, since he taught Sparta to want what he himself had learned not to want. Such was their influence as statesmen.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 4.1] 4 1 But as regards contests in war, achievements in generalship, number of trophies, and magnitude of dangers encountered, Sulla is beyond compare. Lysander, it is true, won two victories in as many naval battles; and I will add to his exploits his siege of Athens, which was really not a great affair, although the reputation of it was brilliant. 2 What occurred in Boeotia and at Haliartus, was due, perhaps, to a certain evil fortune; but it looks as though he was injudicious in not waiting for the large forces of the king, which had all but arrived from Plataea, instead of allowing his resentment and ambition to lead him into an inopportune assault upon the walls, with the result that an inconsiderable and random body of men sallied out and overwhelmed him. For he received his death wound, not as Cleombrotus did, at Leuctra, standing firm against the enemy’s onsets, nor as Cyrus did, or Epaminondas, rallying his men and assuring the victory to them; 3 these all died the death of kings and generals. But Lysander threw away his life ingloriously, like a common targeteer or skirmisher, and bore witness to the wisdom of the ancient Spartans in avoiding assaults on walled cities, where not only an ordinary man, but even a child or a woman may chance to smite and slay the mightiest warrior, as Achilles, they say, was slain by Paris at the gates.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 4.4] 4 In Sulla’s case, at any rate, it is no easy matter even to enumerate the pitched battles which he won and the myriads of enemies whom he slew; Rome itself he captured twice, and he took the Piraeus of Athens, not by famine, as Lysander did, but by a series of great battles, after he had driven Archelaüs from the land to the sea. It is important, too, that we consider the character of their antagonists. For I think it was the merest child’s play to win a sea-fight against Antiochus, Alcibiades’ pilot, or to outwit Philocles, the Athenian demagogue,
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 4.4b] “Inglorious foe, whose only weapon is a sharpened tongue”
;
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 4.5] such men as these Mithridates would not have deigned to compare with his groom, nor Marius with his lictor. 5 But of the dynasts, consuls, generals, and demagogues who lifted themselves against Sulla, to pass by the rest, who among the Romans was more formidable than Marius? who among the kings was more powerful than Mithridates? who among the Italians was more warlike than Lamponius and Telesinus? And yet Sulla banished the first of these, subdued the second, and slew the others.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 5.1] 5 1 But what is of more weight, in my opinion, than any thing yet mentioned, 478 Lysander achieved all his successes with the co operation of the authorities at home; whereas Sulla, though he was overpowered by a hostile faction, and an exile, at a time when his wife was being driven from home, his house being demolished, and his friends being slain, when he himself, too, was confronting countless myriads of enemies in Boeotia and risking his life for his country, set up his trophy of victory; 2 and not even when Mithridates offered him an alliance and forces to wield against his enemies at Rome, would he make any concession whatsoever, or show him kindness even; nay, he would not so much as greet him or give him his hand, until he heard him say personally that he would relinquish Asia, hand over his ships, and restore Bithynia and Cappadocia to their rightful kings. 3 No act of Sulla’s whatsoever appears more honourable than this, or due to a loftier spirit, because he set the public interests before his own, and, like dogs of noble breed, did not relax his bite or let go his hold until his adversary had yielded, and then only did he set out to avenge his own private wrongs. 4 And besides all this, their treatment of Athens is of some weight in a comparison of their characters. Sulla, after taking the city, although it had fought against him to support the power and supremacy of Mithridates, restored to her freedom and independence; whereas Lysander, although she had fallen from such a great supremacy and empire, showed her no pity, but took away her democratic form of government, and appointed most savage and lawless men to be her tyrants.
[Comp. Lys.–Sull. 5.5] 5 We may now consider whether we shall err very much from the truth in pronouncing our verdict that Sulla won the more successes, while Lysander had the fewer failings; and in giving to the one the preëminence in self-control and moderation, to the other, in generalship and valour.

## Cimon

[Cim. 1.1] 478 1 1 Peripoltas the seer, who conducted King Opheltas with his subjects from Thessaly into Boeotia, left a posterity there which was in high repute for many generations. The greater part of them settled in Chaeroneia, which was the first city they won from the Barbarians. Now the most of this posterity were naturally men of war and courage, and so were consumed away in the Persian invasions and the contests with the Gauls, because they did not spare themselves. 2 There remained, however, an orphan boy, Damon by name, Peripoltas by surname, who far surpassed his fellows in beauty of body and in vigour of spirit, though otherwise he was untrained and of a harsh disposition.
[Cim. 1.3] With this Damon, just passed out of boy’s estate, the Roman commander of a cohort that was wintering in Chaeroneia fell enamoured, and since he could not win him over by solicitations and presents, 479 he was plainly bent on violence, seeing that our native city was at that time in sorry plight, and neglected because of her smallness and poverty. 3 Violence was just what Damon feared, and since the solicitation itself had enraged him, he plotted against the man, and enlisted against him sundry companions, — a few only, that they might escape notice. There were sixteen of them in all, who smeared their faces with soot one night, heated themselves with wine, and at daybreak fell upon the Roman while he was sacrificing in the market-place, slew him, together with many of his followers, and departed the city. 4 During the commotion which followed, the council of Chaeroneia met and condemned the murderers to death, and this was the defence which the city afterwards made to its Roman rulers. But in the evening, while the magistrates were dining together, as the custom is, Damon and his men burst into the town-hall, slew them, and again fled the city.
[Cim. 1.5] 5 Now about that time it chanced that Lucius Lucullus passed that way, on some errand, with an army. Halting on his march and investigating matters while they were still fresh in mind, he found that the city was in no wise to blame, but rather had itself also suffered wrong. So he took his garrison of soldiers and led them away with him. 6 Then Damon, who was ravaging the country with predatory forays and threatening the city, was induced by embassies and conciliatory decrees of the citizens to return, and was appointed gymnasiarch. But soon, as he was anointing himself in the vapour-bath, he was slain. And because for a long while thereafter certain phantoms appeared in the place, and groans were heard there, as our Fathers tell us, the door of the vapour-bath was walled up, and to this present time the neighbours think it the source of alarming sights and sounds. 7 Descendants of Damon’s family (and some are still living, especially near Stiris in Phocis, Aeolians in speech) are called “Asbolomeni,” or “Besooted,” because Damon smeared himself with soot before he went forth to do his deed of murder.
[Cim. 2.1] 2 1 But the Orchomenians, who were neighbours and rivals of the Chaeroneians, hired a Roman informer to cite the city by name, as though it were an individual person, and prosecute it for the murder of the Roman soldiers who had been slain by Damon. 2 The trial was held before the praetor of Macedonia (the Romans were not yet sending praetors to Greece), and the city’s advocates invoked the testimony of Lucullus. Lucullus, when the praetor wrote to him, testified to the truth of the matter, and so the city escaped capital condemnation. Accordingly, the people who at that time were saved by him erected a marble statue of Lucullus in the market-place beside that of Dionysus. And we, though many generations removed from him, think that his favour extends even down to us who are now living; 3 and since we believe that a portrait which reveals character and disposition is far more beautiful than one which merely copies form and feature, we shall incorporate this man’s deeds into our parallel lives, and we shall rehearse them truly. The mere mention of them is sufficient favour to show him; and as a return for his truthful testimony he himself surely would not deign to accept a false and garbled narrative of his career.
[Cim. 2.4] 4 We demand of those who would paint fair and graceful features that, in case of any slight imperfection therein, they shall neither wholly omit it nor yet emphasise it, because the one course makes the portrait ugly and the other unlike its original. In like manner, since it is difficult, nay rather perhaps impossible, to represent a man’s life as stainless and pure, 480 in its fair chapters we must round out the truth into fullest semblance; 5 but those transgressions and follies by which, owing to passion, perhaps, or political compulsion, a man’s career is sullied, we must regard rather as shortcomings in some particular excellence than as the vile products of positive baseness, and we must not all too zealously delineate them in our history, and superfluously too, but treat them as though we were tenderly defending human nature for producing no character which is absolutely good and indisputably set towards virtue.
[Cim. 3.1] 3 1 On looking about for some one to compare with Lucullus, we decided that it must be Cimon. Both were men of war, and of brilliant exploits against the Barbarians, and yet they were mild and beneficent statesmen, in that they gave their countries unusual respite from civil strifes, though each one of them set up martial trophies and won victories that were famous. 2 No Hellene before Cimon and no Roman before Lucullus carried his wars into such remote lands, if we leave out of our account the exploits of Heracles and Dionysus, and whatever credible deeds of Perseus against the Aethiopians or Medes and Armenians, or of Jason, have been brought down in the memory of man from those early times to our own. 3 Common also in a way to both their careers was the incompleteness of their campaigns. Each crushed, but neither gave the death blow to his antagonist. But more than all else, the lavish ease which marked their entertainments and hospitalities, as well as the ardour and laxity of their way of living, was conspicuous alike in both. Possibly we may omit still other resemblances, but it will not be hard to gather them directly from our story.
[Cim. 4.1] 4 1 Cimon was the son of Miltiades by Hegesipyle, a woman of Thracian stock, daughter of King Olorus, as it is stated in the poems of Archelaüs and Melanthius addressed to Cimon himself. That explains how it was that the father of Thucydides the historian — and Thucydides was connected with the family of Cimon — was also an Olorus, who referred his name back to that of the common ancestor, and also how it was that Thucydides had gold mines in Thrace. 2 And it is said that Thucydides died in Skapte Hylé, a place in Thrace, having been murdered there; but his remains were brought to Attica, and his monument is shown among those of Cimon’s family, hard by the tomb of Elpinicé, Cimon’s sister. However, Thucydides belonged to the deme of Halimus, the family of Miltiades to that of Laciadae.
[Cim. 4.3] 3 Now Miltiades, who had been condemned to pay a fine of fifty talents and confined till payment should be made, died in prison, and Cimon, thus left a mere stripling with his sister who was a young girl and unmarried, was of no account in the city at first. He had the bad name of being dissolute and bibulous, and of taking after his grandfather Cimon, who, they say, because of his simplicity, was dubbed Coalemus, or Booby. 4 And Stesimbrotus the Thracian, who was of about Cimon’s time, says that he acquired no literary education, nor any other liberal and distinctively Hellenic accomplishment; that he lacked entirely the Attic cleverness and fluency of speech; that in his outward bearing there was much nobility and truthfulness; that the fashion of the man’s spirit was rather Peloponnesian,
[Cim. 4.3b] “Plain, unadorned, in a great crisis brave and true,”
[Cim. 4.3c] as Euripides says of Heracles, a citation which we may add to what Stesimbrotus wrote.
[Cim. 4.5] 5 While he was still a youth he was accused of improper intercourse with his sister. And indeed in other cases too they say that Elpinicé was not very decorous, but that she had improper relations also with Polygnotus the painter, and that it was for this reason that, in the Peisianacteum, as it was then called, but now the Painted Colonnade, when he was painting the Trojan women, 481 he made the features of Laodicé a portrait of Elpinicé. 6 Now Polygnotus was not a mere artisan, and did not paint the stoa for a contract price, but gratis, out of zeal for the welfare of the city, as the historians relate, and as Melanthius the poet testifies after this fashion: —
[Cim. 4.5b] “He at his own lavish outlay the gods’ great fanes, and the market
Named Cecropia, adorned; demigods’ valour his theme.”
[Cim. 4.7] 7 Still, there are some who say that Elpinicé did not live with Cimon in secret intercourse, but openly rather, as his wedded wife, because, on account of her poverty, she could not get a husband worthy of her high lineage; but that when Callias, a wealthy Athenian, fell in love with her, and offered to pay into the state treasury the fine which had been imposed upon her father, she consented herself, and Cimon freely gave Elpinicé to Callias to wife.
[Cim. 4.8] 8 However, it is perfectly apparent that Cimon was given to the love of women. Asteria, of a Salaminian family, and a certain Mnestra are mentioned by the poet Melanthius, in a sportive elegy addressed to Cimon, as wooed and won by him. 9 And it is clear that he was even too passionately attached to his lawful wife, Isodicé, the daughter of Euryptolemus and grand-daughter of Megacles, and that he was too sorely afflicted at her death, if we may judge from the elegy addressed to him for the mitigation of his grief. This was composed by the naturalist Archelaüs, as Panaetius the philosopher thinks, and his conjecture is chronologically possible.
[Cim. 5.1] 5 1 All other traits of Cimon’s character were admirable and noble. Neither in daring was he inferior to Miltiades, nor in sagacity to Themistocles, and it is admitted that while not one whit behind them in the good qualities of a soldier, he was inconceivably their superior in those of a statesman, even when he was still young and untried in war. 2 When the Medes made their invasion, and Themistocles was trying to persuade the people to give up their city, abandon their country, make a stand with their fleet off Salamis, and fight the issue at sea, most men were terrified at the boldness of the scheme; but lo, Cimon was first to act, and with a gay mien led a procession of his companions through the Cerameicus up to the Acropolis, to dedicate to the goddess there the horse’s bridle which he carried in his hands, signifying thus that what the city needed then was not knightly prowess but sea-fighters. 3 After he had dedicated his bridle, he took one of the shields which were hung up about the temple, addressed his prayers to the goddess, and went down to the sea, whereat many were first made to take heart.
[Cim. 5.4] He was also of no mean presence, as Ion the poet says, but tall and stately, with an abundant and curly head of hair. And since he displayed brilliant and heroic qualities in the actual struggle at Salamis, he soon acquired reputation and good will in the city. Many thronged to him and besought him to purpose and perform at once what would be worthy of Marathon. 4 So when he entered politics the people gladly welcomed him, and promoted him, since they were full to surfeit of Themistocles, to the highest honours and offices in the city, for he was engaging and attractive to the common folk by reason of his gentleness and artlessness. But it was Aristides, son of Lysimachus, who more than any one else furthered his career, for he saw the fine features of his character, and made him, as it were, a foil to the cleverness and daring of Themistocles.
[Cim. 6.1] 6 1 After the flight of the Medes from Hellas, Cimon was sent out as a commander, before the Athenians had obtained their empire of the sea, and while they were still under the leadership of Pausanias and the Lacedaemonians. During this campaign, the citizen-soldiers he furnished on expeditions were always admirably disciplined and far more zealous than any others; 482 2 and again, while Pausanias was holding treasonable conference with the Barbarians, writing letters to the King, treating the allies with harsh arrogance, and displaying much wantonness of power and silly pretension, Cimon received with mildness those who brought their wrongs to him, treated them humanely, and so, before men were aware of it, secured the leadership of Hellas, not by force of arms, but by virtue of his address and character. 3 For most of the allies, because they could not endure the severity of and disdain of Pausanias, attached themselves to Cimon and Aristides, who had no sooner won this following than they sent also to the Ephors and told them, since Sparta had lost her prestige and Hellas was in confusion, to recall Pausanias.
[Cim. 6.4] 4 It is said that a maiden of Byzantium, of excellent parentage, Cleonicé by name, was summoned by Pausanias for a purpose that would disgrace her. Her parents, influenced by constraint and fear, abandoned their daughter to her fate, and she, after requesting the attendants to remove the light, in darkness and silence at length drew near the couch on which Pausanias was asleep, but accidentally stumbled against the lamp-holder and upset it. 5 Pausanias, startled by the noise, drew the dagger which lay at his side, with the idea that some enemy was upon him, and smote and felled the maiden. After her death in consequence of the blow, she gave Pausanias no peace, but kept coming into his sleep by night in phantom form, wrathfully uttering this verse: —
[Cim. 6.4b] “Draw thou nigh to thy doom; ‘tis evil for men to be wanton.”
[Cim. 6.6] At this outrage the allies were beyond measure incensed, and joined Cimon in forcing Pausanias to give up the city. 6 Driven from Byzantium, and still harassed by the phantom, as the story goes, he had recourse to the ghost-oracle of Heracleia, and summoning up the spirit of Cleonicé, besought her to forgo her wrath. She came into his presence and said that he would soon cease from his troubles and on coming to Sparta, thus darkly intimating, as it seems, his impending death. At any rate, this tale is told by many.
[Cim. 7.1] 7 1 But Cimon, now that the allies had attached themselves to him, took command of them and sailed to Thrace, for he heard that men of rank among the Persians and kinsmen of the King held possession of Eïon, a city on the banks of the Strymon, and were harassing the Hellenes in that vicinity. 2 First he defeated the Persians themselves in battle and shut them up in the city; then he expelled from their homes above the Strymon the Thracians from whom the Persians had been getting provisions, put the whole country under guard, and brought the besieged to such straits that Butes, the King’s general, gave up the struggle, set fire to the city, and destroyed with it his family, his treasures, and himself. 3 And so it was that though Cimon took the city, he gained no other memorable advantage thereby, since most of its treasures had been burned up with the Barbarians; but the surrounding territory was very fertile and fair, and this he turned over to the Athenians for occupation. Wherefore the people permitted him to dedicate the stone Hermae, on the first of which is the inscription: —
[Cim. 7.4] 4 “Valorous-hearted as well were they who at Eïon fighting,
Facing the sons of the Medes, Strymon’s current beside,
Fiery famine arrayed, and gore-flecked Ares, against them,
Thus first finding for foes that grim exit, — despair;”
and on the second: —
“Unto their leaders reward by Athenians thus hath been given;
Benefits won such return, valorous deeds of the brave.
[Cim. 7.4b] All the more strong at the sight will the men of the future be eager,
Fighting for commonwealth, war’s dread strife to maintain;”
[Cim. 7.5] 483 5 and on the third: —
“With the Atridae of old, from this our city, Menestheus
Led his men to the plain Trojan called and divine.
[Cim. 7.5b] He, once Homer asserted, among well-armoured Achaeans,
Marshaller was of the fight, best of them all who had come.
[Cim. 7.5c] Thus there is naught unseemly in giving that name to Athenians;
Marshallers they both of war and of the vigour of men.”
[Cim. 8.1] 8 1 Although these inscriptions nowhere mentioned Cimon by name, his contemporaries held them to be a surpassing honour for him. Neither Themistocles nor Miltiades achieved any such, nay, when the latter asked for a crown of olive merely, Sophanes the Deceleian rose up in the midst of the assembly and protested. His speech was ungracious, but it pleased the people of that day. “When,” said he, “thou hast fought out alone a victory over the Barbarians, then demand to be honoured alone.” 2 Why, then, were the people so excessively pleased with the achievement of Cimon? Perhaps it was because when the others were their generals they were trying to repel their enemies and so avert disaster; but when he led them they were enabled to ravage the land of their enemies with incursions of their own, and acquired fresh territories for settlement, not only Eïon itself, but also Amphipolis.
[Cim. 8.3] 3 They settled Scyros too, which Cimon seized for the following reason. Dolopians were living on the island, but they were poor tillers of the soil. So they practised piracy on the high sea from of old, and finally did not withhold their hands even from those who put into their ports and had dealings with them, but robbed some Thessalian merchants who had cast anchor at Ctesium, and threw them into prison. 4 When these men had escaped from bondage and won their suit against the city at the Amphictyonic assembly, the people of Scyros were not willing to make restitution, but called on those who actually held the plunder to give it back. 5 The robbers, in terror, sent a letter to Cimon, urging him to come with his fleet to seize the city, and they would give it up to him. In this manner Cimon got possession of the island, drove out the Dolopians, and made the Aegean a free sea.
[Cim. 8.5] On learning that the ancient Theseus, son of Aegeus, had fled in exile from Athens to Scyros, but had been treacherously put to death there, through fear, by Lycomedes the king, Cimon eagerly sought to discover his grave. 6 For the Athenians had once received an oracle bidding them bring back the bones of Theseus to the city and honour him as became a hero, but they knew not where he lay buried, since the Scyrians would not admit the truth of the story, nor permit any search to be made. Now, however, Cimon set to work with great ardour, discovered at last the hallowed spot, had the bones bestowed in his own trireme, and with general pomp and show brought them back to the hero’s own country after an absence of about four hundred years. This was the chief reason why the people took kindly to him.
[Cim. 8.7] 7 But they also cherished in kindly remembrance of him that decision of his in the tragic contests which became so famous. When Sophocles, still a young man, entered the lists with his first plays, Apsephion the Archon, seeing that the spirit of rivalry and partisanship ran high among the spectators, did not appoint the judges of the contest as usual by lot, but when Cimon and his fellow-generals advanced into the theatre and made the customary libation to the god, he would not suffer them to depart, but forced them to take the oath and sit as judges, being ten in all, one from each tribe. 8 So, then, the contest, even because of the unusual dignity of the judges, was more animated than ever before. But Sophocles came off victorious, and it is said that Aeschylus, in great distress and indignation thereat, lingered only a little while at Athens, and then went off in anger to Sicily. There he died also, and is buried near Gela.a
[Cim. 9.1] 484 9 1 Ion says that, coming from Chios to Athens as a mere stripling, he was once a fellow-guest with Cimon at a dinner given by Laomedon, and that over the wine the hero was invited to sing, and did sing very agreeably, and was praised by the guests as a cleverer man than Themistocles. That hero, they said, declared that he had not learned to sing, nor even to play the lyre, but knew how to make a city great and rich. 2 Next, Ion says, as was natural over the cups, the conversation turned to the exploits of Cimon, and as his greatest deeds were being recounted, the hero himself dwelt at length on one particular stratagem which he thought his shrewdest. Once, he said, when the Athenians and their allies had taken many barbarian prisoners at Sestos and Byzantium and turned them over to him for distribution, he put into one lot the persons of their captives, and into another the rich adornments of their bodies, and his distribution was blamed as unequal. 3 But he bade the allies choose one of the lots, and the Athenians would be content with whichever one they left. So, on the advice of Herophytus the Samian to choose Persian wealth rather than Persians, the allies took the rich adornments for themselves, and left the prisoners for the Athenians. At the time Cimon came off with the reputation of being a ridiculous distributer, since the allies had their gold anklets and armlets and collars and jackets and purple robes to display, while the Athenians got only naked bodies ill-trained for labour. 4 But a little while later, the friends and kinsmen of the captives came down from Phrygia and Lydia and ransomed every one of them at a great price, so that Cimon had four months’ pay and rations for his fleet, and besides that, much gold from the ransoms was left over for the city.
[Cim. 10.1] 10 1 And since he was already wealthy, Cimon lavished the revenues from his campaign, which he was thought to have won with honour from the enemy, to his still greater honour, on his fellow-citizens. He took away the fences from his fields, that strangers and needy citizens might have it in their power to take fearlessly of the fruits of the land; and every day he gave a dinner at his house, — simple, it is true, but sufficient for many, to which any poor man who wished came in, and so received a maintenance which cost him no effort and left him free to devote himself solely to public affairs. 2 But Aristotle says that it was not for all Athenians, but only for his own demesmen, the Laciadae, that he provided a free dinner. He was constantly attended by young comrades in fine attire, each one of whom, whenever an elderly citizen in needy array came up, was ready to exchange raiment with him. The practice made a deep impression. 3 These same followers also carried with them a generous sum of money, and going up to poor men of finer quality in the market-place, they would quietly thrust small change into their hands. To such generosity as this Cratinus seems to have referred in his Archilochi, with the words: —
[Cim. 10.4] 4 “Yes, I too hoped, Metrobius, I, the public scribe,
Along with man divine, the rarest host that lives,
In every way the best of all Hellenic men,
With Cimon, feasting out in joy a sleek old age,
To while away the remnant of my life. But he
Has gone before and left me.”
[Cim. 10.5] 5 And again, Gorgias the Leontine says that Cimon made money that he might spend it, and spent it that he might be honoured for it. And Critias, one of the thirty tyrants, prays in his elegies that he may have “the wealth of the Scopadae, the great-mindedness of Cimon, and the victories of Arcesilaus of Lacedaemon.”
[Cim. 10.6] And yet we know that Lichas the Spartan became famous among the Hellenes for no other reason than that he entertained the strangers at the boys’ gymnastic festival; 485 but the generosity of Cimon surpassed even the hospitality and philanthropy of the Athenians of olden time. 6 For they — and their city is justly very proud of it — spread abroad among the Hellenes the sowing of grain and the lustral uses of spring waters, and taught mankind who knew it not the art of kindling fire. But he made his home in the city a general public residence for his fellow citizens, and on his estates in the country allowed even the stranger to take and use the choicest of the ripened fruits, with all the fair things which the seasons bring. Thus, in a certain fashion, he restored to human life the fabled communism of the age of Cronus, — the golden age. 7 Those who slanderously said that this was flattery of the rabble and demagogic art in him, were refuted by the man’s political policy, which was aristocratic and Laconian. He actually opposed Themistocles when he exalted the democracy unduly, as Aristides also did. Later on he took hostile issue with Ephialtes, who, to please the people, tried to dethrone the Council of the Areiopagus; 8 and though he saw all the rest except Aristides and Ephialtes filling their purses with the gains from their public services, he remained unbought and unapproached by bribes, devoting all his powers to the state, without recompense and in all purity, through to the end.
[Cim. 10.9] It is told, indeed, that one Rhoesaces, a Barbarian who had deserted from the King, came to Athens with large moneys, and being set upon fiercely by the public informers, fled for refuge to Cimon, and deposited at his door two platters, one filled with silver, the other with golden Darics. Cimon, when he saw them, smiled, and asked the man 9 whether he preferred to have Cimon as his hireling or his friend, and on his replying, “As my friend,” “Well then,” said Cimon, “take this money with thee and go thy way, for I shall have the use of it when I want it if I am thy friend.”
[Cim. 11.1] 11 The allies continued to pay their assessments, but did not furnish men and ships according to allotment, since they were soon weary of military service, and had no need of war, but a great desire to till their land and live at their ease. The Barbarians were gone and did not harass them, so they neither manned their ships nor sent out soldiers. The rest of the Athenian generals tried to force them to do this, and by prosecuting the delinquents and punishing them, rendered their empire burdensome and vexatious. 2 But Cimon took just the opposite course when he was general, and brought no compulsion to bear on a single Hellene, but accepted money from those who did not wish to go out on service, and ships without crews, and so suffered the allies, caught with the bait of their own ease, to stay at home and become tillers of the soil and unwarlike merchants instead of warriors, and all through their foolish love of comfort. On the other hand, he made great numbers of the Athenians man their ships, one crew relieving another, and imposed on them the toil of his expeditions, and so in a little while, by means of the very wages which they got from the allies, made them lords of their own paymasters. 3 For those who did no military service became used to fearing and flattering those who were continually voyaging, and for ever under arms and training, and practising, and so, before they knew it, they were tributary subjects instead of allies.
[Cim. 12.1] 12 1 And surely there was no one who humbled the Great King himself, and reduced his haughty spirit, more than Cimon. For he did not let him go quietly away from Hellas, but followed right at his heels, as it were, and before the Barbarians had come to a halt and taken breath, he sacked and overthrew here, or subverted and annexed to the Hellenes there, until Asia from Ionia to Pamphylia was entirely cleared of Persian arms. 2 Learning that the generals of the King were lurking about Pamphylia 486 with a great army and many ships, and wishing to make them afraid to enter at all the sea to the west of the Chelidonian isles, he set sail from Cnidus and Triopium with two hundred triremes. These vessels had been from the very beginning very well constructed for speed and manoeuvring by Themistocles; but Cimon now made them broader, and put bridges between their decks, in order that with their numerous hoplites they might be more effective in their onsets. 3 Putting in at Phaselis, which was a Hellenic city, but refused to admit his armament or even to abandon the King’s cause, he ravaged its territory and assaulted its walls. But the Chians, who formed part of his fleet and were of old on friendly terms with the people of Phaselis, laboured to soften Cimon’s hostility, and at the same time, by shooting arrows over the walls with little documents attached, they conveyed messages of their success to the men of Phaselis. 4 So finally Cimon made friends with them on condition that they should pay ten talents and join him in his expedition against the Barbarians.
[Cim. 12.5] Now Ephorus says that Tithraustes was commander of the royal fleet, and Pherendates of the infantry; but Callisthenes says that it was Ariomandes, the son of Gobryas, who, as commander-in chief of all the forces, lay at anchor with the fleet off the mouth of the Eurymedon, and that he was not at all eager to fight with the Hellenes, but was waiting for eighty Phoenician ships to sail up from Cyprus. 5 Wishing to anticipate their arrival, Cimon put out to sea, prepared to force the fighting if his enemy should decline an engagement. At first the enemy put into the river, that they might not be forced to fight; but when the Athenians bore down on them there, they sailed out to meet them. They had six hundred ships, according to Phanodemus; three hundred and fifty, according to Ephorus. Whatever the number, nothing was achieved by them on the water which was worthy of such a force, 6 but they straightway put about and made shore, where the foremost of them abandoned their ships and fled for refuge to the infantry which was drawn up near by; those who were overtaken were destroyed with their ships. Whereby also it is plain that the Barbarian ships which went into action were very numerous indeed, since, though many, of course, made their escape and many were destroyed, still two hundred were captured by the Athenians.
[Cim. 13.1] 13 1 When the enemy’s land forces marched threateningly down to the sea, Cimon thought it a vast undertaking to force a landing and lead his weary Hellenes against an unwearied and many times more numerous foe. But he saw that his men were exalted by the impetus and pride of their victory, and eager to come to close quarters with the Barbarians, so he landed his hoplites still hot with the struggle of the sea-fight, and they advanced to the attack with shouts and on the run. 2 The Persians stood firm and received the onset nobly, and a mighty battle ensued, wherein there fell brave men of Athens who were foremost in public office and eminent. But after a long struggle the Athenians routed the Barbarians with slaughter, and then captured them and their camp, which was full of all sorts of treasure.
[Cim. 13.3] 3 But Cimon, though like a powerful athlete he had brought down two contests in one day, and though he had surpassed the victory of Salamis with an infantry battle, and that of Plataea with a naval battle, still went on competing with his own victories. Hearing that the eighty Phoenician triremes which were too late for the battle had put in at Hydrus, he sailed thither with all speed, while their commanders as yet knew nothing definite about the major force, but were still in distrustful suspense. 4 For this reason they were all the more panic-stricken at his attack, and lost all their ships. Most of their crews were destroyed with the ships. This exploit so humbled the purpose of the King 487 that he made the terms of that notorious peace, by which he was to keep away from the Hellenic sea-coast as far as a horse could travel in a day, and was not to sail west of the Cyanean and Chelidonian isles with armoured ships of war.
[Cim. 13.5] 5 And yet Callisthenes denies that the Barbarian made any such terms, but says he really acted as he did through the fear which that victory inspired, and kept so far aloof from Hellas that Pericles with fifty, and Ephialtes with only thirty, ships sailed beyond the Chelidonian isles without encountering any navy of the Barbarians. 6 But in the decrees collected by Craterus there is a copy of the treaty in its due place, as though it had actually been made. And they say that the Athenians also built the altar of Peace to commemorate this event, and paid distinguished honours to Callias as their ambassador.
[Cim. 13.7] By the sale of the captured spoils the people was enabled to meet various financial demands, and especially it constructed the southern wall of the Acropolis with the generous resources obtained from that expedition. 7 And it is said that, though the building of the long walls, called “legs,” was completed afterwards, yet their first foundations, where the work was obstructed by swamps and marshes, were stayed up securely by Cimon, who dumped vast quantities of rubble and heavy stones into the swamps, meeting the expenses himself. 8 He was the first to beautify the city with the so called “liberal” and elegant resorts which were so excessively popular a little later, by planting the market-place with plane trees, and by converting the Academy from a waterless and arid spot into a well watered grove, which he provided with clear running-tracks and shady walks.
[Cim. 14.1] 14 1 Now there were certain Persians who would not abandon the Chersonese, but called in Thracians from the North to help them, despising Cimon, who had sailed out from Athens with only a few triremes all told. But he sallied out against them with his four ships and captured their thirteen, drove out the Persians, overwhelmed the Thracians, and turned the whole Chersonese over to his city for settlement. 2 And after this, when the Thasians were in revolt from Athens, he defeated them in a sea-fight, captured thirty-three of their ships, besieged and took their city, acquired their gold mines on the opposite mainland for Athens, and took possession of the territory which the Thasians controlled there.
[Cim. 14.3] From this base he had a good opportunity, as it was thought, to invade Macedonia and cut off a great part of it, and because he would not consent to do it, he was accused of having been bribed to this position by King Alexander, and was actually prosecuted, his enemies forming a coalition against him. 3 In making his defence before his judges he said he was no proxenus of rich Ionians and Thessalians, as others were, to be courted and paid for their services, but rather of Lacedaemonians, whose temperate simplicity he lovingly imitated, counting no wealth above it, but embellishing the city with the wealth which he got from the enemy. 4 In mentioning this famous trial Stesimbrotus says that Elpinicé came with a plea for Cimon to the house of Pericles, since he was the most ardent accuser, and that he smiled and said, “Too old, too old, Elpinicé, to meddle with such business.” But at the trial he was very gentle with Cimon, and took the floor only once in accusation of him, as though it were a mere formality.
[Cim. 15.1] 15 1 Well then, Cimon was acquitted at this trial. And during the remainder of his political career, when he was at home, he mastered and constrained the people in its onsets upon the nobles, and in its efforts to wrest all office and power to itself; but when he sailed away again on military service, 488 the populace got completely beyond control. They confounded the established political order of things and the ancestral practices which they had formerly observed, 2 and under the lead of Ephialtes they robbed the Council of the Areiopagus of all but a few of the cases in its jurisdiction. They made themselves masters of the courts of justice, and plunged the city into unmitigated democracy, Pericles being now a man of power and espousing the cause of the populace. And so when Cimon came back home, and in his indignation at the insults heaped upon the reverend council, tried to recall again its jurisdiction and to revive the aristocracy of the times of Cleisthenes, they banded together to denounce him, and tried to inflame the people against him, renewing the old slanders about his sister and accusing him of being a Spartan sympathiser. 3 It was to these calumnies that the famous and popular verses of Eupolis about Cimon had reference: —
[Cim. 15.1b] “He was not base, but fond of wine and full of sloth,
And oft he ‘ld sleep in Lacedaemon, far from home,
And leave his Elpinicé sleeping all alone.”
[Cim. 15.1c] But if, though full of sloth and given to tippling, he yet took so many cities and won so many victories, it is clear that had he been sober and mindful of his business, no Hellene either before or after him would have surpassed his exploits.
[Cim. 16.1] 16 1 It is true indeed that he was at first a philo-Laconian. He actually named one of his twin sons Lacedaemonius, and the other Eleius, — the sons whom a woman of Cleitor bare him, as Stesimbrotus relates, wherefore Pericles often reproached them with their maternal lineage. But Diodorus the Topographer says that these, as well as the third of Cimon’s sons, Thessalus, were born of Isodicé, the daughter of Euryptolemus, the son of Megacles. 2 And he was looked upon with favour by the Lacedaemonians, who soon were at enmity with Themistocles, and therefore preferred that Cimon, young as he was, should have the more weight and power in Athens. The Athenians were glad to see this at first, since they reaped no slight advantage from the good will which the Spartans showed him. 3 While their empire was first growing, and they were busy making alliances, they were not displeased that honour and favour should be shown to Cimon. He was the foremost Hellenic statesman, dealing generally with the allies and acceptably with the Lacedaemonians. But afterwards, when they became more powerful, and saw that Cimon was strongly attached to the Spartans, they were displeased thereat. For on every occasion he was prone to exalt Lacedaemon to the Athenians, especially when he had occasion to chide or incite them. Then, as Stesimbrotus tells us, he would say: “But the Lacedaemonians are not of such a sort.” 4 In this way he awakened the envy and hatred of his fellow-citizens.
[Cim. 16.1b] At any rate, the strongest charge against him arose as follows. When Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus, was in the fourth year of his reign at Sparta, a greater earthquake than any before reported rent the land of the Lacedaemonians into many chasms, shook Taÿgetus so that sundry peaks were torn away, and demolished the entire city with the exception of five houses. The rest were thrown down by the earthquake.
[Cim. 16.5] 5 It is said that while the young men and youths were exercising together in the interior of the colonnade, just a little before the earthquake, a hare made its appearance, and the youths, all anointed as they were, in sport dashed out and gave chase to it, but the young men remained behind, on whom the gymnasium fell, and all perished together. Their tomb, even down to the present day, they call Seismatias.
[Cim. 16.6] 6 Archidamus at once comprehended from the danger at hand that which was sure to follow, 489 and as he saw the citizens trying to save the choicest valuables out of their houses, ordered the trumpet to give the signal of an enemy’s attack, in order that they might flock to him at once under arms. This was all that saved Sparta at that crisis. For the Helots hurriedly gathered from all the country round about with intent to despatch the surviving Spartans. 7 But finding them arrayed in arms, they withdrew to their cities and waged open war, persuading many Perioeci also so to do. The Messenians besides joined in this attack upon the Spartans.
[Cim. 16.8] Accordingly, the Lacedaemonians sent Pericleidas to Athens with request for aid, and Aristophanes introduces him into comedy as “sitting at the altars, pale of face, in purple cloak, soliciting an army.” 8 But Ephialtes opposed the project, and besought the Athenians not to succour or restore a city which was their rival, but to let haughty Sparta lie to be trodden under foot of men. Whereupon, as Critias says, Cimon made his country’s increase of less account than Sparta’s interest, and persuaded the people to go forth to her aid with many hoplites. And Ion actually mentions the phrase by which, more than by anything else, Cimon prevailed upon the Athenians, exhorting them “not to suffer Hellas to be crippled, nor their city to be robbed of its yoke-fellow.”
[Cim. 17.1] 17 1 After he had given aid to the Lacedaemonians, he was going back home with his forces through the Isthmus of Corinth, when Lachartus upbraided him for having introduced his army before he had conferred with the citizens. “People who knock at doors,” said he, “do not go in before the owner bids them”; to which Cimon replied, “And yet you Corinthians, O Lachartus, did not so much as knock at the gates of Cleonae and Megara, but hewed them down and forced your way in under arms, demanding that everything be opened up to the stronger.” Such was his boldness of speech to the Corinthian in an emergency, and he passed on through with his forces.
[Cim. 17.2] 2 Once more the Lacedaemonians summoned the Athenians to come to their aid against the Messenians and Helots in Ithomé, and the Athenians went, but their dashing boldness awakened fear, and they were singled out from all the allies and sent off as dangerous conspirators. They came back home in a rage, and at once took open measures of hostility against the Laconizers, and above all against Cimon. Laying hold of a trifling pretext, they ostracised him for ten years. That was the period decreed in all cases of ostracism.
[Cim. 17.3] 3 It was during this period that the Lacedaemonians, after freeing the Delphians from the Phocians, encamped at Tanagra on their march back home. Here the Athenians confronted them, bent on fighting their issue out, and here Cimon came in arms, to join his own Oeneïd tribe, eager to share with his fellow-citizens in repelling the Lacedaemonians. 4 But the Council of the Five Hundred learned of this and was filled with fear, since Cimon’s foes accused him of wishing to throw the ranks into confusion, and then lead the Lacedaemonians in an attack upon the city; so they forbade the generals to receive the man. As he went away he besought Euthippus of Anaphlystus and his other comrades, all who were specially charged with laconizing, to fight sturdily against the enemy, and by their deeds of valour to dissipate the charge which their countrymen laid at their door. 5 They took his armour and set it in the midst of their company, supported one another ardently in the fight, and fell, to the number of one hundred, leaving behind them among the Athenians a great and yearning sense of their loss, and sorrow for the unjust charges made against them. For this reason the Athenians did not long abide by their displeasure against Cimon, partly because, as was natural, they remembered his benefits, and partly because the turn of events favoured his cause. 490 6 For they were defeated at Tanagra in a great battle, and expected that in the following spring-time an armed force of Peloponnesians would come against them, and so they recalled Cimon from his exile. The decree which provided for his return was formally proposed by Pericles. To such a degree in those days were dissensions based on political differences of opinion, while personal feelings were moderate, and easily recalled into conformity with the public weal. Even ambition, that master passion, paid deference to the country’s welfare.
[Cim. 18.1] 18 1 Well then, as soon as Cimon returned from exile he stopped the war and reconciled the rival cities. After peace was made, since he saw that the Athenians were unable to keep quiet, but wished to be on the move and to wax great by means of military expeditions; also because he wished that they should not exasperate the Hellenes generally, nor by hovering around the islands and the Peloponnesus with a large fleet bring down upon the city charges of intestine war, and initial complaints from the allies, he manned two hundred triremes. 2 His design was to make another expedition with them against Egypt and Cyprus. He wished to keep the Athenians in constant training by their struggles with Barbarians, and to give them the legitimate benefits of importing into Hellas the wealth taken from their natural foes.
[Cim. 18.3] All things were now ready and the soldiery on the point of embarking, when Cimon had a dream. 3 He thought an angry bitch was baying at him, and that mingled with its baying it uttered a human voice, saying: —
[Cim. 18.3b] “Go thy way, for a friend shalt thou be both to me and my puppies.”
[Cim. 18.4] The vision being hard of interpretation, Astyphilus of Posidonia, an inspired man and an intimate of Cimon’s, told him that it signified his death. He analysed the vision thus: a dog is a foe of the man at whom it bays; to a foe, one cannot be a friend any better than by dying; the mixture of speech indicates that the enemy is the Mede, for the army of the Medes is a mixture of Hellenes and Barbarians. 4 After this vision, when Cimon had sacrificed to Dionysus and the seer was cutting up the victim, swarms of ants took the blood as it congealed, brought it little by little to Cimon, and enveloped his great toe therewith, he being unconscious of their work for some time. Just about at the time when he noticed what they were doing, the ministrant came and showed him the liver of his victim without a head.
[Cim. 18.5] But since he could not get out of the expedition, he set sail, and after detailing sixty of his ships to go to Egypt, with the rest he made again for Cyprus. 5 After defeating at sea the royal armament of Phoenician and Cilician ships, he won over the cities round about, and then lay threatening the royal enterprise in Egypt, and not in any trifling fashion, — nay, he had in mind the dissolution of the King’s entire supremacy, and all the more because he learned that the reputation and power of Themistocles were great among the Barbarians, who had promised the King that when the Hellenic war was set on foot he would take command of it. 6 At any rate, it is said that it was most of all due to Themistocles’ despair of his Hellenic undertakings, since he could not eclipse the good fortune and valour of Cimon, that he took his own life.
[Cim. 18.6] But Cimon, while he was projecting vast conflicts and holding his naval forces in the vicinity of Cyprus, sent men to the shrine of Ammon to get oracular answer from the god to some secret question. No one knows what they were sent to ask, nor did the god vouchsafe them any response, but as soon as the enquirers drew nigh, he bade them depart, saying that Cimon himself was already with him. On hearing this, the enquirers went down to the sea-coast, and when they reached the camp of the Hellenes, which was at that time on the confines of Egypt, they learned that Cimon was dead, and on counting the days back to the utterance of the oracle, they found that it was their commander’s death which had been darkly intimated, since he was already with the gods.
[Cim. 19.1] 491 19 1 He died while besieging Citium, of sickness, as most say. But some say it was of a wound which he got while fighting the Barbarians. As he was dying he bade those about him to sail away at once and to conceal his death. And so it came to pass that neither the enemy nor the allies understood what had happened, and the force was brought back in safety “under the command of Cimon,” as Phanodemus says, “who had been dead for thirty days.”
[Cim. 19.2] 2 After his death no further brilliant exploit against the Barbarians was performed by any general of the Hellenes, who were swayed by demagogues and partisans of civil war, with none to hold a mediating hand between them, till they actually clashed together in war. This afforded the cause of the King a respite, but brought to pass an indescribable destruction of Hellenic power. 3 It was not until long afterwards that Agesilaüs carried his arms into Asia and prosecuted a brief war against the King’s generals along the sea-coast. And even he could perform no great and brilliant deeds, but was overwhelmed in his turn by a flood of Hellenic disorders and seditions and swept away from a second empire. So he withdrew, leaving in the midst of allied and friendly cities the tax-gatherers of the Persians, not one of whose scribes, nay, nor so much as a horse, had been seen within four hundred furlongs of the sea, as long as Cimon was general.
[Cim. 19.4] 4 That his remains were brought home to Attica, there is testimony in the funeral monuments to this day called Cimonian. But the people of Citium also pay honours to a certain tomb of Cimon, as Nausicrates the rhetorician says, because in a time of pestilence and famine the god enjoined upon them not to neglect Cimon, but to revere and honour him as a superior being. Such was the Greek leader.

## Lucullus

[Luc. 1.1] 1 1 IN the case of Lucullus, his grandfather was a man of consular rank, and his uncle on his mother’s side was Metellus, surnamed Numidicus. But as for his parents, his father was convicted of peculation, and his mother, Caecilia, had the bad name of a dissolute woman. Lucullus himself, while he was still a mere youth, before he had entered public life or stood for any office, made it his first business to impeach his father’s accuser, Servilius the Augur, whom he found wronging the commonwealth. 2 The Romans thought this a brilliant stroke, and the case was in everybody’s mouth, like a great deed of prowess. Indeed, they thought the business of impeachment, on general principles and without special provocation, no ignoble thing, but were very desirous to see their young men fastening themselves on malefactors like high-bred whelps on wild beasts. However, the case stirred up great animosity, so that sundry persons were actually wounded and slain, and Servilius was acquitted.
[Luc. 1.3] 3 Lucullus was trained to speak fluently both Latin and Greek, so that Sulla, in writing his own memoirs, dedicated them to him, as a man who would set in order and duly arrange the history of the times better than himself. For the style of Lucullus was not only businesslike and ready; the same was true of many another man’s in the Forum. There,
[Luc. 1.3b] “Like smitten tunny, through the billowy sea it dashed,”
although outside the Forum it was
“Withered, inelegant, and dead.”
[Luc. 1.4] 4 But Lucullus, from his youth up, was devoted to the genial and so called “liberal” culture then in vogue, wherein the Beautiful was sought. And when he came to be well on in years, he suffered his mind to find complete leisure and repose, as it were after many struggles, in philosophy, encouraging the contemplative side of his nature, and giving timely halt and check, after his difference with Pompey, to the play of his ambition. 5 Now, as to his love of literature, this also is reported, in addition to what has already been said: when he was a young man, proceeding from jest to earnest in a conversation with Hortensius, the orator, and Sisenna, the historian, he agreed, on their suggestion of a poem and a history, both in Greek and Latin, that he would treat the Marsic war in whichever of these forms the lot should prescribe. And it would seem that the lot prescribed a Greek history, for there is extant a Greek history of the Marsic war.
[Luc. 1.6] 6 Of his affection for his brother Marcus there are many proofs, but the Romans dwell most upon the first. Although, namely, he was older than his brother, he was unwilling to hold office alone, but waited until his brother was of the proper age, and thus gained the favour of the people to such an extent that, although in absence from the city, he was elected aedile along with his brother.
[Luc. 2.1] 2 1 Though he was but a young man in the Marsic war, he gave many proofs of courage and understanding. It was, however, more owing to constancy and mildness that Sulla attached him to himself and employed him from first to last on business of the highest importance. Such, for instance, was the management of the mint. 2 Most of the money used in Peloponnesus during the Mithridatic war was coined by him, and was called Lucullean after him. It remained current for a long time, since the wants of the soldiery during the war gave it rapid circulation. Afterwards, at Athens, Sulla found himself master on land, but cut off from supplies by sea, owing to the superior naval force of the enemy. He therefore despatched Lucullus to Egypt and Libya, with orders to fetch ships from there. 3 Winter was then at its worst, but he sailed forth with three Greek brigantines and as many small Rhodian galleys, exposing himself not only to the high sea, but to numerous hostile ships which were cruising about everywhere in full mastery of it. However, he put in at Crete and won it over to his side. He also made Cyrené, and finding it in confusion in consequence of successive tyrannies and wars, he restored it to order, and fixed its constitution, reminding the city of a certain oracular utterance which the great Plato had once vouchsafed to them. 4 They asked him, it would seem, to write laws for them, and to mould their people into some form of sound government, whereupon he said that it was hard to be a lawgiver for the Cyreneans when they were having such good fortune. In fact, nothing is more ungovernable than a man reputed to be prosperous; and, on the other hand, nothing is more receptive of authority than a man who is humbled by misfortune. This was what made the Cyreneans at that time so submissive to Lucullus as their lawgiver.
[Luc. 2.5] 5 From thence he set sail for Egypt, but was attacked by pirates, and lost most of his vessels. He himself, however, escaped in safety, and entered the port of Alexandria in splendid style. The entire Egyptian fleet came to meet him, as it was wont to do when a king put into port, in resplendent array, and the youthful Ptolemy, besides showing him other astonishing marks of kindness, gave him lodging and sustenance in the royal palace, whither no foreign commander had ever been brought before. 6 The allowance which the king made for his expenses was not the same as others had received, but four times as much, and yet he accepted nothing beyond what was actually necessary, and took no gift, although he was offered the worth of eighty talents. It is also said that he neither went up to Memphis, nor sought out any other of the famous wonders of Egypt; this he held to be the privilege of a leisurely and luxurious sight-seer, not of one who, like himself, had left his commander-in chief encamped under the open sky alongside the battlements of the enemy.
[Luc. 3.1] 3 1 Ptolemy abandoned his alliance with Rome, out of fear for the outcome of the war, but furnished Lucullus with ships to convoy him as far as Cyprus, embraced him graciously at parting, and offered him a costly emerald set in gold. At first Lucullus declined to accept it, but when the king showed him that the engraving on it was a likeness of himself, he was afraid to reject it, lest he be thought to have sailed away at utter enmity with the king, and so have some plot laid against him on the voyage. 2 As he sailed along, he collected a multitude of ships from the maritime cities, omitting all those engaged in piracy, and came at last to Cyprus. Learning there that the enemy lay at anchor off the headlands and were watching for his coming, he hauled all his vessels up on land, and wrote letters to the cities requesting winter quarters and provisions, as though he would await the fine season there. 3 Then, when the wind served, he suddenly launched his ships and put out to sea, and by sailing in the day time with his sails reefed and low, but in the night time under full canvas, he came safely to Rhodes. The Rhodians furnished him with more ships, and he induced the people of Cos and Cnidus to forsake the royal cause and join him in an expedition against Samos. Without any aid he also drove the royal forces out of Chios, and set the Colophonians free from their tyrant, Epigonus, whom he arrested.
[Luc. 3.4] 4 It happened about this time that Mithridates abandoned Pergamum and shut himself up in Pitané. Since Fimbria held him in close siege there by land, he looked to make his escape by sea, and collected and summoned his fleets from every quarter for this purpose, renouncing all engagements in the field with a man so bold and victorious as Fimbria. 5 This design Fimbria perceived, and being without any fleet of his own, sent to Lucullus, beseeching him to come with his, and assist in capturing the most hostile and warlike of kings, that the great prize which they had sought with so many toils and struggles might not escape the Romans, now that Mithridates was in their grip and fast in the meshes of their net. If he should be captured, Fimbria said, no one would get more of the glory than the man who stood in the way of his flight and seized him as he was running off. 6 “Driven from the land by me, and excluded from the sea by you, he will crown us both with success, and the much heralded exploits of Sulla at Orchomenus and Chaeroneia will cease to interest the Romans.” And there was nothing absurd in the proposition. It is clear to everyone that if Lucullus, who was close at hand, had then listened to Fimbria, brought his ships thither, and closed up the harbour with his fleet, the war would have been at an end, and the world freed from infinite mischief. 7 But, whether he ranked the honourable treatment of Sulla above every consideration of private or public advantage, or whether he regarded Fimbria as a wretch whose ambition for command had recently led him to murder a man who was his friend and superior officer, or whether it was by some mysterious dispensation of fortune that he chose to spare Mithridates, and so reserved him for his own antagonist, — for whatever reason, he would not listen to the proposal, but suffered Mithridates to sail off and mock at Fimbria’s forces, 8 while he himself, to begin with, defeated the king’s ships which showed themselves off Lectum in the Troad. And again, catching sight of Neoptolemus lying in wait for him at Tenedos with a still larger armament, he sailed out against him in advance of the rest, on board of a Rhodian galley which was commanded by Damagoras, a man well disposed to the Romans, and of the largest experience as a sea-fighter. 9 Neoptolemus dashed out to meet him, and ordered his steersman to ram the enemy. Damagoras, however, fearing the weight of the royal ship and her rugged bronze armour, did not venture to engage head on, but put swiftly about and ordered his men to back water, thus receiving his enemy astern, where his vessel was depressed. The blow was harmless, since it fell upon the submerged parts of the ship. 10 At this point, his friends coming up, Lucullus gave orders to turn the ship about, and, after performing many praiseworthy feats, put the enemy to flight and gave close chase to Neoptolemus.
[Luc. 4.1] 4 1 From thence he joined Sulla at the Chersonesus, where he was about to cross the strait into Asia; he rendered his passage safe, and assisted in transporting his troops. After peace had been made, Mithridates sailed away into the Euxine, and Sulla laid a contribution of twenty thousand talents upon Asia. Lucullus was commissioned to collect this money and re-coin it, and the cities of Asia felt it to be no slight assuagement of Sulla’s severity when Lucullus showed himself not only honest and just, but even mild in the performance of a task so oppressive and disagreeable. 2 The Mitylenaeans too, who had revolted outright, he wished to be reasonable, and to submit to a moderate penalty for having espoused the cause of Marius. But when he saw that they were possessed by an evil spirit, he sailed against them, conquered them in battle, and shut them up within their walls. After instituting a siege of their city, he sailed away in open day to Elaea, but returned by stealth, and lay quietly in ambush near the city. 3 When the Mitylenaeans sallied forth in disorder and with the confident expectation of plundering his deserted camp, he fell upon them, took a great number of them alive, and slew five hundred of those who offered resistance. He also carried off six thousand slaves, besides countless other booty.
[Luc. 4.4] 4 But in the boundless and manifold evils which Sulla and Marius were bringing upon the people of Italy at that time, he had no share whatever, for, as some kindly fortune would have it, he was detained at his business in Asia. However, Sulla accorded no less favour to Lucullus than to his other friends. His memoirs, as I have said, Sulla dedicated to Lucullus in token of affection, and in his will appointed him guardian of his son, thereby passing Pompey by. And this seems to have been the first ground for estrangement and jealousy between these two men; both were young, and burning for distinction.
[Luc. 5.1] 5 1 Shortly after the death of Sulla, Lucullus was made consul along with Marcus Cotta, about the hundred and seventy-sixth Olympiad. Many were now trying to stir up anew the Mithridatic war, which Marcus said had not come to an end, but merely to a pause. Therefore when the province of Cisalpine Gaul was allotted to Lucullus, he was displeased, since it offered no opportunity for great exploits. 2 But what most of all embittered him was the reputation which Pompey was winning in Spain. If the war in Spain should happen to come to an end, Pompey was more likely than anyone else to be at once chosen general against Mithridates. Therefore when Pompey wrote home requesting money, and declaring that if they did not send it, he would abandon Spain and Sertorius and bring his forces back to Italy, Lucullus moved heaven and earth to have the money sent, and to prevent Pompey from coming back, on any pretext whatsoever, while he was consul. 3 He knew that all Rome would be in Pompey’s hands if he were there with so large an army. For the man who at that time controlled the course of political affairs by virtue of doing and saying everything to court the favour of the people, Cethegus, hated Lucullus, who loathed his manner of life, full as it was of disgraceful amours and wanton trespasses. Against this man Lucullus waged open war. 4 But Lucius Quintus, another popular leader, who opposed the institutions of Sulla and sought to confound the established order of things, he turned from his purpose by much private remonstrance and public admonition, and allayed his ambition, thus treating in as wise and wholesome a manner as was possible the beginnings of a great distemper.
[Luc. 6.1] 6 1 At this time there came tidings of the death of Octavius, the governor of Cilicia. There were many eager applicants for the province, and they paid court to Cethegus as the man best able to further their designs. Of Cilicia itself Lucullus made little account, but in the belief that, if he should get this province, which was near Cappadocia, no one else would be sent to conduct the war against Mithridates, he strained every nerve to keep the province from being assigned to another. 2 Finally, contrary to his natural bent, he was driven by the necessities of the case to adopt a course which was neither dignified nor praiseworthy, it is true, but conducive to his end.
[Luc. 6.3] There was a certain woman then in Rome, Praecia by name, whose fame for beauty and wit filled the city. In other respects she was no whit better than an ordinary courtesan, but she used her associates and companions to further the political ambitions of her friends, and so added to her other charms the reputation of being a true comrade, and one who could bring things to pass. She thus acquired the greatest influence. 3 And when Cethegus also, then at the zenith of his fame and in control of the city, joined her train and became her lover, political power passed entirely into her hands. No public measure passed unless Cethegus favoured it, and Cethegus did nothing except with Praecia’s approval. This woman, then, Lucullus won over by gifts and flatteries, and it was doubtless a great boon for a woman so forward and ostentatious to be seen sharing the ambitions of Lucullus. Straightway he had Cethegus singing his praises and suing for Cilicia in his behalf. 4 But as soon as he had obtained this province, there was no further need of his soliciting the aid of Praecia, or of Cethegus, for that matter, but all were unanimous and prompt in putting into his hands the Mithridatic war, assured that no one else could better bring it to a triumphant close. Pompey was still engaged in his war with Sertorius, Metellus had now retired from active service by reason of his age, and these were the only men who could be regarded as rivals of Lucullus in any dispute about this command. 5 Cotta, however, his colleague in the consulship, after fervent entreaties to the Senate, was sent with some ships to guard the Propontis, and to protect Bithynia.
[Luc. 7.1] 7 1 With a legion which he had raised himself in Italy, Lucullus crossed into Asia, and there assumed command of the rest of the Roman forces. All these had long been spoiled by habits of luxury and greed, and the Fimbrians, as they were called, had become unmanageable, through long lack of discipline. 2 These were the men who, in collusion with Fimbrius, had slain Flaccus, their consul and general, and had delivered Fimbrius himself over to Sulla. They were self-willed and lawless, but good fighters, hardy, and experienced in war. However, in a short time Lucullus pruned off their insolent boldness, and reformed the rest. Then for the first time, as it would seen, they made the acquaintance of a genuine commander and leader, whereas before this they had always been cajoled into doing their duty, like crowds at the hustings.
[Luc. 7.3] 3 On the enemy’s side, matters stood as follows. Mithridates, boastful and pompous at the outset, like most of the Sophists, had first opposed the Romans with forces which were really unsubstantial, though brilliant and ostentatious to look upon. With these he had made a ridiculous fiasco and learned a salutary lesson. When therefore, he thought to go to war the second time, he organized his forces into a genuinely effective armament. 4 He did away with Barbarous hordes from every clime, and all their discordant and threatening cries; he provided no more armour inlaid with gold and set with precious stones, for he saw that these made rich booty for the victors, but gave no strength whatever to their wearers; instead, he had swords forged in the Roman fashion, and heavy shields welded; he collected horses that were well trained rather than richly caparisoned, and a hundred and twenty thousand footmen drilled in the Roman phalanx formation, and sixteen thousand horsemen, not counting the scythe-bearing, four-horse chariots, which were a hundred in number: 5 and further, he put in readiness ships which were not tricked out with gilded canopies, or baths for concubines, and luxurious apartments for women, but which were rather loaded down with armour and missiles and munitions of war. Then he burst into Bithynia, and not only did the cities there receive him again with gladness, but all Asia suffered a relapse into its former distempered condition, afflicted, as it was, past bearing by Roman money-lenders and tax-gatherers. 6 These were afterwards driven off by Lucullus, — harpies that they were, snatching the people’s food; but then he merely tried, by admonishing them, to make them more moderate in their demands, and laboured to stop the uprisings of the towns, hardly one of which was in a quiet state.
[Luc. 8.1] 8 1 While Lucullus was thus occupied, Cotta, thinking that his own golden opportunity had come, was getting ready to give battle to Mithridates. And when tidings came from many sources that Lucullus was coming up, and was already encamped in Phrygia, thinking that a triumph was all but in his grasp, and desiring that Lucullus have no share in it, he hastened to engage the king. 2 But he was defeated by sea and land, lost sixty vessels, crews and all, and four thousand foot-soldiers, while he himself was shut up in Chalcedon and besieged there, looking for relief at the hands of Lucullus.
[Luc. 8.3] 3 Now there were some who urged Lucullus to ignore Cotta and march on the kingdom of Mithridates, assured of capturing it in its defenceless condition. This was the reasoning of the soldiers especially, who were indignant that Cotta, by his evil counsels, should not only be the undoing of himself and his army, but also block their own way to a victory which they could have won without a battle. 4 But Lucullus, in a harangue which he made them, said that he would rather save one Roman from the enemy than take all that enemy’s possessions. And when Archelaüs, who had held command for Mithridates in Boeotia, and then had abandoned his cause, and was now in the Roman army, stoutly maintained that if Lucullus were once seen in Pontus, he would master everything at once, Lucullus declared that he was at least as courageous as the hunter; he would not give the wild beasts the slip and stalk their empty lairs. 5 With these words, he led his army against Mithridates, having thirty thousand foot-soldiers, and twenty-five hundred horsemen. But when he had come within sight of the enemy and seen with amazement their multitude, he desired to refrain from battle and draw out the time. But Marius, whom Sertorius had sent to Mithridates from Spain with an army, came out to meet him, and challenged him to combat, and so he put his forces in array to fight the issue out. 6 But presently, as they were on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather, but all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar, and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated. 7 This marvel, as they say, occurred in Phrygia, at a place called Otryae.
[Luc. 8.8] But Lucullus, feeling sure that no human provision or wealth could maintain, for any length of time, and in the face of an enemy, so many thousands of men as Mithridates had, ordered one of the captives to be brought to him, and asked him first, how many men shared his mess, and then, how much food he had left in his tent. 8 When the man had answered these questions, he ordered him to be removed, and questioned a second and a third in like manner. Then, comparing the amount of food provided with the number of men to be fed, he concluded that within three or four days the enemy’s provisions would fail them. All the more, therefore, did he trust to time, and collected into his camp a great abundance of provisions, that so, himself in the midst of plenty, he might watch for his enemy’s distress.
[Luc. 9.1] 9 1 But in the meantime, Mithridates planned a blow at Cyzicus, which had suffered terribly in the battle near Chalcedon, having lost three thousand men and ten ships. Accordingly, wishing to evade the notice of Lucullus, he set out immediately after the evening meal, taking advantage of a dark and rainy night, and succeeded in planting his forces over against the city, on the slopes of the mountain range of Adrasteia, by day-break. 2 Lucullus got wind of his departure and pursued him, but was well satisfied not to fall upon the enemy while his own troops were in disorder from their march, and stationed his army near the village called Thracia, in a spot best suited to command the roads and regions from which, and over which, the army of Mithridates must get its necessary supplies. Seeing clearly, therefore, what the issue must be, he did not conceal it from his soldiers, but as soon as they had completed the labour of fortifying their camp, called them together, and boastfully told them that within a few days he would give them their victory, and that without any bloodshed.
[Luc. 9.3] 3 Mithridates was besieging Cyzicus both by land and sea, having encompassed it with ten camps on the land side, and having blockaded with his ships by sea the narrow strait which parts the city from the mainland. Although the citizens viewed their peril with a high courage, and were resolved to sustain every hardship for the sake of the Romans, still, they knew not where Lucullus was, and were disturbed because they heard nothing of him. 4 And yet his camp was in plain sight, only they were deceived by their enemies. These pointed the Romans out to them, lying encamped on the heights, and said: “Do you see those forces? It is an army of Armenians and Medes which Tigranes has sent to assist Mithridates.” They were therefore terrified to see such hosts encompassing them, and had no hopes that any way of succour remained, even if Lucullus should come.
[Luc. 9.5] 5 However, in the first place, Demonax was sent in to them by Archelaüs, and told them that Lucullus was arrived. They disbelieved him, and thought he had invented his story merely to mitigate their anxieties, but then a boy came to them, who had escaped from his captivity with the enemy. On their asking him where he thought Lucullus was, he laughed at them, supposing them to be jesting. But when he saw that they were in earnest, he pointed out the Roman camp to them, and their courage was revived. 6 Again, Lucullus drew out on shore the largest of the sizable craft which plied the lake Dascylitis, carried it across to the sea on a waggon, and embarked upon it as many soldiers as it would hold, who crossed by night unobserved, and got safely into the city.
[Luc. 10.1] 10 1 It would seem also that Heaven, in admiration of their bravery, emboldened the men of Cyzicus by many manifest signs, and especially by the following. The festival of Persephone was at hand, and the people, in lack of a black heifer for the sacrifice, fashioned one of dough, and brought it to the altar. Now the sacred heifer reared for the goddess was pasturing, like the other herds of the Cyzicenes, on the opposite side of the strait, but on that day she left her herd, swam over alone to the city, and presented herself for the sacrifice. 2 And again, the goddess appeared in a dream to Aristagoras, the town-clerk, saying: “Lo, here am I, and I bring the Libyan fifer against the Pontic trumpeter. Bid the citizens therefore be of good cheer.” While the Cyzicenes were lost in wonder at the saying, at day-break the sea began to toss under a boisterous wind, and the siege-engines of the king along the walls, the wonderful works of Niconides the Thessalian, by their creaking and cracking showed clearly what was about to happen; 3 then a south wind burst forth with incredible fury, shattered the other engines in a short space of time, and threw down with a great shock the wooden tower a hundred cubits high. It is related, too, that the goddess Athena appeared to many of the inhabitants of Ilium in their sleep, dripping with sweat, showing part of her peplus torn away, and saying that she was just come from assisting the Cyzicenes. And the people of Ilium used to show a stelé which had on it certain decrees and inscriptions relating to this matter.
[Luc. 11.1] 11 Mithridates, as long as his generals deceived him into ignorance of the famine in his army, was vexed that the Cyzicenes should successfully withstand his siege. But his eager ambition quickly ebbed away when he perceived the straits in which his soldiers were involved, and their actual cannibalism. For Lucullus was not carrying on the war in any theatrical way, nor for mere display, but, as the saying is, was “kicking in the belly,” and devising every means for cutting off food. 2 Accordingly, while Lucullus was laying siege to some outpost or other, Mithridates eagerly took advantage of the opportunity, and sent away into Bithynia almost all his horsemen, together with the beasts of burden, and those of his foot-soldiers who were disabled. On learning of this, Lucullus returned to his camp while it was still night, and early in the morning, in spite of a storm, took ten cohorts of infantry and his cavalry, and started in pursuit, although snow was falling and his hardships were extreme. Many of his soldiers were overcome with the cold and had to be left behind, but with the rest he overtook the enemy at the river Rhyndacus 3 and inflicted such a defeat upon them that the very women came forth from Apollonia and carried off their baggage and stripped their slain. Six thousand horses and fifteen thousand men were captured, besides an untold number of beasts of burden. All these followed in the train of Lucullus as he marched back past the camp of the enemy. 4 Sallust says, to my amazement, that camels were then seen by the Romans for the first time. He must have thought that the soldiers of Scipio who conquered Antiochus before this, and those who had lately fought Archelaüs at Orchomenus and Chaeroneia, were unacquainted with the camel.
[Luc. 11.5] 5 Mithridates was now resolved upon the speediest possible flight, but with a view to drawing Lucullus away, and holding him back from pursuit, he dispatched his admiral, Aristonicus, to the Grecian sea. Aristonicus was just on the point of sailing when he was betrayed into the hands of Lucullus, together with ten thousand pieces of gold which he was carrying for the corruption of some portion of the Roman army. Upon this, Mithridates fled to the sea, and his generals of infantry began to lead the army away. 6 But Lucullus fell upon them at the river Granicus, captured a vast number of them, and slew twenty thousand. It is said that out of the whole horde of camp-followers and fighting men, not much less than three hundred thousand perished in the campaign.
[Luc. 12.1] 12 1 Lucullus, in the first place, entered Cyzicus in triumph, and enjoyed the pleasant welcome which was his due; then he proceeded to the Hellespont, and began to equip a fleet. On visiting the Troad, he pitched his tent in the sacred precinct of Aphrodite, and in the night, after he had fallen asleep, he thought he saw the goddess standing over him and saying: —
[Luc. 12.1b] “Why dost thou sleep, great lion? the fawns are near for thy taking.”
[Luc. 12.2] 2 Rising up from sleep and calling his friends, he narrated to them his vision, while it was yet night. And lo, there came certain men from Ilium, with tidings that thirteen of the king’s galleys had been seen off the harbour of the Achaeans, making for Lemnos. Accordingly, Lucullus put to sea at once, captured these, slew their commander, Isodorus, and then sailed in pursuit of the other captains, whom these were seeking to join. 3 They chanced to be lying at anchor close to shore, and drawing their vessels all up on land, they fought from their decks, and sorely galled the crews of Lucullus. These had no chance to sail round their enemies, nor to make onset upon them, since their own ships were afloat, while those of their enemies were planted upon the land and securely fixed. 4 However, Lucullus at last succeeded in disembarking the best of his soldiers where the island afforded some sort of access. These fell upon the enemy from the rear, slew some of them, and forced the rest to cut their stern cables and fly from the shore, their vessels thus falling foul of one another, and receiving the impact of the ships of Lucullus. 5 Many of the enemy perished, of course, and among the captives there was brought in Marius, the general sent from Sertorius. He had but one eye, and the soldiers had received strict orders from Lucullus, as soon as they set sail, to kill no one-eyed man. Lucullus wished Marius to die under the most shameful insults.
[Luc. 13.1] 13 1 These things done, Lucullus hastened in pursuit of Mithridates himself. For he expected to find him still in Bithynia under the watch and war of Voconius, whom he had dispatched with a fleet to Nicomedeia that he might intercept the king’s flight. 2 But Voconius was behindhand, owing to his initiation into, and celebration of, the mysteries in Samothrace, and Mithridates put to sea with his armament, eager to reach Pontus before Lucullus turned and set upon him. He was overtaken, however, by a great storm, which destroyed some of his vessels and disabled others. The whole coast for many days was covered with the wrecks dashed upon it by the billows. 3 As for the king himself, the merchantman on which he was sailing was too large to be readily beached when the sea ran so high and the waves were so baffling, nor would it answer to its helm, and it was now too heavy and full of water to gain an offing; accordingly, he abandoned it for a light brigantine belonging to some pirates, and, entrusting his person to their hands, contrary to expectation and after great hazard, got safely to Heracleia in Pontus. 4 And so it happened that the boastful speech of Lucullus to the Senate brought no divine retribution down upon him. When, namely, that body was ready to vote three thousand talents to provide a fleet for this war, Lucullus blocked the measure by writing a letter, in which he made the haughty boast that without any such costly array, but only with the ships of the allies, he would drive Mithridates from the sea. And this success he gained with the assistance of Heaven. For it is said that it was owing to the wrath of Artemis of Priapus that the tempest fell upon the men of Pontus, who had plundered her shrine and pulled down her image.
[Luc. 14.1] 14 1 Though many now advised Lucullus to suspend the war, he paid no heed to them, but threw his army into the king’s country by way of Bithynia and Galatia. At first he lacked the necessary supplies, so that thirty thousand Galatians followed in his train, each carrying a bushel of grain upon his shoulders; but as he advanced and mastered everything, he found himself in the midst of such plenty that an ox sold in his camp for a drachma, and a man-slave for four, while other booty had no value at all. Some abandoned it, and some destroyed it. There was no sale for anything to anybody when all had such abundance.
[Luc. 14.2] 2 But when Lucullus merely wasted and ravaged the country with cavalry incursions, which penetrated the Themiscyra and the plains of the river Thermodon, his soldiers found fault with him because he brought all the cities over to him by peaceable measures; he had not taken a single one by storm, they said, nor given them a chance to enrich themselves by plunder. 3 “Nay,” they said, “at this very moment we are leaving Amisus, a rich and prosperous city, which it would be no great matter to take, if its siege were pressed, and are following our general into the desert of the Tibareni and the Chaldaeans to fight with Mithridates.” But these grievances, not dreaming that they would bring the soldiers to such acts of madness as they afterwards performed, Lucullus overlooked and ignored. 4 He was, however, more ready to defend himself against those who denounced his slowness in lingering there a long while, subduing worthless little villages and cities, and allowing Mithridates to recruit himself. “That,” he said, “is the very thing I want, and I am sitting here to get it. I want the man to become powerful again, and to get together a force with which it is worth our while to fight, in order that he may stand his ground, and not fly when we approach. 5 Do you not see that he has a vast and trackless desert behind him? The Caucasus, too, is near, with its many hills and dells, which are sufficient to hide away in safety ten thousand kings who decline to fight. And it is only a few days’ journey from Cabira into Armenia and over Armenia there sits enthroned Tigranes, King of Kings, with forces which enable him to cut the Parthians off from Asia, transplant Greek cities into Media, sway Syria and Palestine, put to death the successors of Seleucus, and carry off their wives and daughters into captivity. 6 This king is a kinsman of Mithridates, his son-in law. He will not be content to receive him as a suppliant, but will make war against us. If we strive, therefore, to eject Mithridates from his kingdom, we shall run the risk of drawing Tigranes down upon us. He has long wanted an excuse for coming against us, and could not get a better one than that of being compelled to aid a man who is his kinsman and a king. Why, then, should we bring this to pass, and teach Mithridates, when he does not know it, with what allies he must carry on war against us? Why help to drive him, against his wish and as a last resource, into the arms of Tigranes, instead of giving him time to equip himself from his own resources and get fresh courage? Then we shall fight with Colchians and Tibareni and Cappadocians, whom we have often overcome, rather than with Medes and Armenians.”
[Luc. 15.1] 15 1 Influenced by such considerations as these, Lucullus lingered about Amisus, without pushing the siege vigorously. When winter was over, he left Murena in charge of the siege, and marched against Mithridates, who had taken his stand at Cabira, and intended to await the Roman onset there. A force of forty thousand footmen had been collected by him, and four thousand horsemen; on the latter he placed his chief reliance. 2 Crossing the river Lycus and advancing into the plain, he offered the Romans battle. A cavalry fight ensued, and the Romans took to flight. Pomponius, a man of some note, having been wounded, was taken prisoner and led into the presence of Mithridates, suffering greatly from his wounds. When the king asked him if he would become his friend provided he spared his life, Pomponius answered: “Yes, indeed, if you come to terms with the Romans; otherwise I must remain your enemy.” Mithridates was struck with admiration for him, and did him no harm.
[Luc. 15.3] 3 Lucullus was now afraid of the plains, since the enemy was superior in cavalry, and yet hesitated to go forward into the hill country, which was remote, woody, and impassable. But it chanced that certain Greeks, who had taken refuge in a sort of cave, were captured, and the elder of them, Artemidorus, promised to serve Lucullus as a guide, and set him in a place which was safe for his camp, and which had a fortress overlooking Cabira. 4 Lucullus put confidence in this promise, and as soon as it was night, lit his camp fires and set out. He passed safely through the narrow defiles and took possession of the desired place, and at daybreak was seen above the enemy, stationing his men in positions which gave him access to the enemy if he wished to fight, and safety from their assaults if he wished to keep quiet.
[Luc. 15.5] 5 Now neither commander had any intention of hazarding an engagement at once. But we are told that while some of the king’s men were chasing a stag, the Romans cut them off and confronted them, whereupon a skirmish followed, with fresh accessions continually to either side. At last, the king’s men were victorious. Then the Romans in their camp, beholding the flight of their comrades, were in distress, and ran in throngs to Lucullus, begging him to lead them, and demanding the signal for battle. 6 But he, wishing them to learn how important, in a dangerous struggle with the enemy, the visible presence of a prudent general is, bade them keep quiet. Then he went down into the plain by himself, and confronting the foremost of the fugitives, bade them stop, and turn back with him. 7 They obeyed, and the rest also wheeled about and formed in battle array, and a short time routed the enemy and drove them to their camp. When he came back, however, Lucullus inflicted the customary disgrace upon the fugitives. He bade them dig a twelve-foot ditch, working in ungirt blouses, while the rest of the soldiers stood by and watched them.
[Luc. 16.1] 16 1 In the camp of Mithridates there was a Dandarian prince named Olthacus (the Dandarians are a tribe of barbarians dwelling about Lake Maeotis), a man conspicuous as a soldier for qualities of strength and boldness, of a most excellent judgment, and withal affable in address and of insinuating manners. This man was always in emulous rivalry for the precedence with a fellow prince of his tribe, and so was led to undertake a great exploit for Mithridates, namely, the murder of Lucullus. 2 The king approved of his design, and purposely inflicted upon him sundry marks of disgrace, whereupon, pretending to be enraged, he galloped off to Lucullus, who gladly welcomed him, since there was much talk of him in the camp. After a short probation, Lucullus was so pleased with his shrewdness and zeal, that he made him a table companion, and at last a member of his council.
[Luc. 16.3] 3 Now when the Dandarian thought his opportunity had come, he ordered his slaves to lead his horse outside the camp, while he himself, at mid-day, when the soldiers were lying around enjoying their rest, went to the general’s tent. He thought no one would deny entrance to a man who was an intimate of the general, and said he brought him certain messages of great importance. 4 And he would have entered without let or hindrance, had not sleep, the destroyer of many generals, saved Lucullus. For it chanced that he was asleep, and Menedemus, one of his chamberlains, who stood at the tent-door, told Olthacus that he had come at an inopportune time, since Lucullus had just betaken himself to rest after his long watching and many hardships. 5 Olthacus did not retire at the bidding of Menedemus, but declared that even in spite of him he would go in, since he wished to confer with the general on urgent business of great importance. Then Menedemus got angry, declared that nothing was more urgent than the preservation of Lucullus, and pushed the man away with both hands. 6 Then Olthacus, in fear, left the camp, took horse, and rode off to the camp of Mithridates, without effecting his purpose. So true is it that in active life, as well as in sickness, it is the critical moment which gives the scales their saving or their fatal inclination.
[Luc. 17.1] 17 1 After this, Sornatius was sent with ten cohorts to get supplies of grain. Being pursued by Menander, one of the generals of Mithridates, he faced about, joined battle, and routed the enemy with great slaughter. And again, when Adrian was sent out with a force to procure an abundance of grain for the soldiers, Mithridates did not look on idly, but dispatched Menemachus and Myron, at the head of a large body of cavalry and footmen. 2 All these, it is said, except two, were cut to pieces by the Romans. Mithridates tried to conceal the extent of the disaster, pretending that it was a slight matter, and due to the inexperience of his generals. But when Adrian marched pompously past his camp, convoying many waggons laden with grain and booty, a great despair fell upon the king, and confusion and helpless fear upon his soldiers. 3 They decided, therefore, to remain where they were no longer. But when the king’s servants tried to send away their own baggage first, and to hinder the rest from going, the soldiers at once got angry, pushed and forced their way to the exits of the camp, and there plundered the baggage and slew the men in charge of it. There it was that Dorylaüs, the general, with nothing else about him but his purple robe, lost his life for that, and Hermaeus, the priest, was trampled to death at the gates.
[Luc. 17.4] 4 Mithridates himself, with no attendant or groom to assist him, fled away from the camp in the midst of the throng, not even provided with one of the royal horses; but at last the eunuch Ptolemaeus, who was mounted, spied him as he was borne along in the torrent of the rout, leaped down from his horse, and gave it to the king. 5 Presently the Romans, who were forcing the pursuit, were hard upon him, and it was for no lack of speed that they did not take him. Indeed, they were very near doing so, but greed, and petty soldier’s avarice, snatched from them the quarry which they had so long pursued in many struggles and great dangers, and robbed Lucullus of the victor’s prize. 6 For the horse which carried the king was just within reach of his pursuers, when one of the mules which carried the royal gold came between him and them, either of his own accord, or because the king purposely sent him into the path of pursuit. The soldiers fell to plundering and collecting the gold, fought with one another over it, and so were left behind in the chase. 7 Nor was this the only fruit of their greed which Lucullus reaped. He had given orders that Callistratus, who was in charge of the king’s private papers, should be brought alive to him, but his conductors, finding that he had five hundred pieces of gold in his girdle, slew him. However, Lucullus allowed such soldiers as these to plunder the enemy’s camp.
[Luc. 18.1] 18 1 In capturing Cabira and most of the other strongholds, he found great treasures, and many prisons, in which many Greeks and many kinsfolk of the king were confined. As they had long been given up for dead, it was not so much a rescue as it was a resurrection and a sort of second birth, for which they were indebted to the favour of Lucullus. 2 Nyssa, a sister of Mithridates, was also captured; and her capture was her salvation. But the sisters and wives of the king who were thought to be at farthest remove from danger and quietly hidden away in Pharnacia, perished pitifully, since Mithridates paused long enough in his flight to send Bacchides, a eunuch, to compass their death. Among many other women, there were two sisters of the king, Roxana and Statira, about forty years old and unmarried; and two of his wives, of Ionian families, Berenicé from Chios, and Monimé, a Milesian. 3 The latter was most talked of among the Greeks, to the effect that though the king tempted her virtue and sent her fifteen thousand pieces of gold, she resisted his advances, until he entered into a marriage contract with her, sent her a diadem, and greeted her with the title of Queen. But her marriage had been an unhappy one, and she bewailed that beauty which had procured her a master instead of a husband, and a guard of Barbarians instead of home and family, dwelling as she did far, far away from Greece, where the blessings for which she had hoped existed only in her dreams, while she was bereft of the real blessings to which she had been wonted.
[Luc. 18.4] 4 And now Bacchides came and ordered them all to die, in whatever manner each might deem easiest and most painless. Monimé snatched the diadem from her head, fastened it round her neck, and hanged herself. But her halter quickly broke in two. “O cursed bauble,” she cried, “couldst thou not serve me even in this office?” Then she spat upon it, hurled it from her, and offered her throat to Bacchides. 5 But Berenicé, taking a cup of poison, shared it with her mother, who stood at her side and begged for some. Together they drank it off, and the force of the poison sufficed for the weaker body, but it did not carry off Berenicé, who had not drunk enough. As she was long in dying, and Bacchides was in a hurry, she was strangled. 4 It is said also that of the unmarried sisters, one drank off her poison with many abusive imprecations on her brother; but that Statira did so without uttering a single reproachful or ungenerous word. She rather commended her brother because, when his own life was at hazard, he had not neglected them, but had taken measures to have them die in freedom and under no insults. Of course these things gave pain to Lucullus, who was naturally of a gentle and humane disposition.
[Luc. 19.1] 19 1 Lucullus pushed on in pursuit as far as Talaura, whence, four days before, Mithridates had succeeded in escaping to Tigranes, in Armenia; then he turned aside. After subduing the Chaldaeans and the Tibareni, he occupied Lesser Armenia, reducing its fortresses and cities, and then sent Appius to Tigranes with a demand for Mithridates. 2 He himself, however, came to Amisus, which was still holding out against the siege. Its success in this was due to Callimachus, its commander, who, by his acquaintance with mechanical contrivances and his power to employ every resource which the siege of a city demands, had given the Romans the greatest annoyance. For this he afterwards paid the penalty. But at this time, he was simply out-generalled by Lucullus, who made a sudden attack at just that time of day when Callimachus was accustomed to draw his soldiers off from the ramparts and give them a rest. When the Romans had got possession of a small part of the wall, Callimachus abandoned the city, first setting fire to it with his own hands, either because he begrudged the visitors their booty, or because his own escape was thus facilitated. 3 For no one paid any attention to those who were sailing away, but when the flames increased mightily and enveloped the walls, the soldiers made ready to plunder the houses. Lucullus, out of pity for the perishing city, tried to bring aid from outside against the fire, and gave orders to extinguish the flames, but no one paid any heed to his commands. The soldiers all clamoured for the booty, and shouted, and clashed their shields and spears together, until he was forced to let them have their way, hoping that he could at least save the city itself from the flames. But the soldiers did just the opposite. 4 Ransacking everything by torch-light and carrying lights about everywhere, they destroyed most of the houses themselves. When Lucullus entered the city at daybreak, he burst into tears, and said to his friends that he had often already deemed Sulla happy, and on that day more than ever he admired the man’s good fortune, in that when he wished to save Athens, he had the power to do so. 5 “But upon me,” he said, “who have been so eager to imitate his example, Heaven has devolved the reputation of Mummius.”
[Luc. 19.6] However, as far as circumstances allowed, he endeavoured to restore the city. The fire, indeed, had been quenched by showers which fell providentially just as the city was captured, and most of what the soldiers had destroyed he rebuilt himself before his departure. He also received into the city those of the Amisenes who had fled, and settled there any other Greeks who so desired, and added to the city’s domain a tract of a hundred and twenty stadia. 6 The city was a colony of Athens, founded in that period when her power was at its height and she controlled the sea. And this was the reason why many who wished to excuse the tyranny of Aristion at Athens sailed to Amisus, settled there, and became citizens. In flying from evils at home, they got the benefit of greater evils abroad. But those of them who survived were well clothed by Lucullus, and sent back home, with a present of two hundred drachmas apiece. 7 Tyrannio the grammarian was also taken prisoner at this time. Murena asked to have him as his own prize, and on getting him, formally gave him his liberty, therein making an illiberal use of the gift which he had received. For Lucullus did not think it meet that a man so esteemed for his learning should first become a slave, and then be set at liberty. To give him a nominal liberty was to rob him of the liberty to which he was born. But this was not the only case in which Murena was found to be far inferior to his commander in nobility of conduct.
[Luc. 20.1] 20 1 Lucullus now turned his attention to the cities in Asia, in order that, while he was at leisure from military enterprises, he might do something for the furtherance of justice and law. Through long lack of these, unspeakable and incredible misfortunes were rife in the province. Its people were plundered and reduced to slavery by the tax-gatherers and money-lenders. Families were forced to sell their comely sons and virgin daughters, and cities their votive offerings, pictures, and sacred statues. 2 At last men had to surrender to their creditors and serve them as slaves, but what preceded this was far worse, — tortures of rope, barrier, and horse; standing under the open sky in the blazing sun of summer, and in winter, being thrust into mud or ice. Slavery seemed, by comparison, to be disburdenment and peace. 3 Such were the evils which Lucullus found in the cities, and in a short time he freed the oppressed from all of them.
[Luc. 20.4] In the first place, he ordered that the monthly rate of interest should be reckoned at one per cent., and no more; in the second place, he cut off all interest that exceeded the principal; third, and most important of all, he ordained that the lender should receive not more than the fourth part of his debtor’s income, and any lender who added interest to principal was deprived of the whole. 4 Thus, in less than four years’ time, the debts were all paid, and the properties restored to their owners unencumbered. This public debt had its origin in the twenty thousand talents which Sulla had laid upon Asia as a contribution, and twice this amount had been paid back to the money-lenders. Yet now, by reckoning usurious interest, they had brought the total debt up to a hundred and twenty thousand talents. 5 These men, accordingly, considered themselves outraged, and raised a clamour against Lucullus at Rome. They also bribed some of the tribunes to proceed against him, being men of great influence, who had got many of the active politicians into their debt. Lucullus, however, was not only beloved by the peoples whom he had benefited, nay, other provinces also longed to have him set over them, and felicitated those whose good fortune it was to have such a governor.
[Luc. 21.1] 21 1 Appius Clodius, who had been sent to Tigranes (Clodius was a brother of her who was then the wife of Lucullus), was at first conducted by the royal guides through the upper country by a route needlessly circuitous and long. But when a freedman of his, who was a Syrian, told him of the direct route, he left the long one which was being trickily imposed upon him, bade his Barbarian guides a long farewell, and within a few days crossed the Euphrates and came to Antioch by Daphne. 2 Then, being ordered to await Tigranes there (the king was still engaged in subduing some cities of Phoenicia), he gained over many of the princes who paid but a hollow obedience to the Armenian. One of these was Zarbienus, king of Gordyene. He also promised many of the enslaved cities, when they sent to confer with him secretly, the assistance of Lucullus, although for the present he bade them keep quiet.
[Luc. 21.3] 3 Now the sway of the Armenians was intolerably grievous to the Greeks. Above all else, the spirit of the king himself had become pompous and haughty in the midst of his great prosperity. All the things which men most covet and admire, he not only had in his possession, but actually thought that they existed for his sake. 4 For though he had started on his career with small and insignificant expectations, he had subdued many nations, humbled the Parthian power as no man before him had done, and filled Mesopotamia with Greeks whom he removed in great numbers from Cilicia and from Cappadocia, and settled anew. He also removed from their wonted haunts the nomadic Arabians, and brought them to an adjacent settlement, that he might employ them in trade and commerce. 5 Many were the kings who waited upon him, and four, whom he always had about him like attendants or body-guards, would run on foot by their master’s side when he rode out, clad in short blouses, and when he sat transacting business, would stand by with their arms crossed. This attitude was thought to be the plainest confession of servitude, as if they had sold their freedom and offered their persons to their master disposed for suffering rather than for service.
[Luc. 21.6] 6 Appius, however, was not frightened or astonished at all this pomp and show, but as soon as he obtained an audience, told the king plainly that he was come to take back Mithridates, as an ornament due to the triumph of Lucullus, or else to declare war against Tigranes. Although Tigranes made every effort to listen to this speech with a cheerful countenance and a forced smile, he could not hide from the bystanders his discomfiture at the bold words of the young man. It must have been five and twenty years since he had listened to a free speech. That was the length of his reign, or rather, of his wanton tyranny. 7 However, he replied to Appius that he would not surrender Mithridates, and that if the Romans began war, he would defend himself. He was vexed with Lucullus for addressing him in his letter with the title of King only, and not King of Kings, and accordingly, in his reply, would not address Lucullus as Imperator. But he sent splendid gifts to Appius, and when he would not take them, added more besides. Appius finally accepted a single bowl from among them, not wishing his rejection of the king’s offers to seem prompted by any personal enmity, but sent back the rest, and marched off with all speed to join the Imperator.
[Luc. 22.1] 22 1 Up to this time Tigranes had not deigned to see Mithridates, nor speak to him, though the man was allied to him by marriage, and had been expelled from such a great kingdom. Instead, he had kept him at the farthest remove possible, in disgrace and contumely, and had suffered him to be held a sort of prisoner in marshy and sickly regions. Now, however, he summoned him to his palace with marks of esteem and friendship. 2 There, in secret conference, they strove to allay their mutual suspicions at the expense of their friends, by laying the blame upon them. One of these was Metrodorus of Scepsis, a man of agreeable speech and wide learning, who enjoyed the friendship of Mithridates in such a high degree that he was called the king’s father. 3 This man, as it seems, had once been sent as an ambassador from Mithridates to Tigranes, with a request for aid against the Romans. On this occasion Tigranes asked him: “But what is your own advice to me, Metrodorus, in this matter?” Whereupon Metrodorus, either with an eye to the interests of Tigranes, or because he did not wish Mithridates to be saved, said that as an ambassador he urged consent, but as an adviser he forbade it. Tigranes disclosed this to Mithridates, not supposing, when he told him, that he would punish Metrodorus past all healing. 4 But Metrodorus was at once put out of the way. Then Tigranes repented of what he had done, although he was not entirely to blame for the death of Metrodorus. He merely gave an impulse, as it were, to the hatred which Mithridates already had for the man. For had long been secretly hostile to him, as was seen from his private papers when they were captured, in which there were directions that Metrodorus, as well as others, be put to death. Accordingly, Tigranes gave the body of Metrodorus a splendid burial, sparing no expense upon the man when dead, although he had betrayed him when alive.
[Luc. 22.5] 5 Amphicrates, the rhetorician, also lost his life at the court of Tigranes, if, for the sake of Athens, we may make some mention of him too. It is said that when he was exiled from his native city, he went to Seleucia on the Tigris, and that when the citizens asked him to give lectures there, he treated their invitation with contempt, arrogantly remarking that a stewpan could not hold a dolphin. Removing hence, he attached himself to Cleopatra, the daughter of Mithridates and wife of Tigranes, but speedily fell into disfavour, and, being excluded from intercourse with Greeks, starved himself to death. He also received honourable burial at the hands of Cleopatra, and his body lies at Sapha, as a place in those parts is called.
[Luc. 23.1] 23 1 Lucullus, after filling Asia full of law and order, and full of peace, did not neglect the things which minister to pleasure and win favour, but during his stay at Ephesus gratified the cities with processions and triumphal festivals and contests of athletes and gladiators. And the cities, in response, celebrated festivals which they called Lucullea, to do honour to the man, and bestowed upon him what is sweeter than honour, their genuine good-will. 2 But when Appius came, and it was plain that war must be waged against Tigranes, he went back into Pontus, put himself at the head of his soldiers, and laid siege to Sinopé, or rather, to the Cilicians who were occupying that city for the king. These slew many of the Sinopians, fired the city, and set out to fly by night. 3 But Lucullus saw what was going on, made his way into the city, and slew eight thousand of the Cilicians who were still there. Then he restored to the citizens their private property, and ministered to the needs of the city, more especially on account of the following vision. He thought in his sleep that a form stood by his side and said: “Go forward a little, Lucullus; for Autolycus is come, and wishes to meet you.” 4 On rising from sleep, he was unable to conjecture what the vision meant; but he took the city on that day, and as he pursued the Cilicians who were sailing away, he saw a statue lying on the beach, which the Cilicians had not succeeded in getting on board with them. It was the work of Sthenis, and one of his masterpieces. Well then, some one told Lucullus that it was the statue of Autolycus, the founder of Sinopé.
[Luc. 23.5] 5 Now Autolycus is said to have been one of those who made an expedition with Heracles from Thessaly against the Amazons, a son of Deïmachus. On his voyage of return, in company with Demoleon and Phlogius, he lost his ship, which was wrecked at the place called Pedalium, in the Chersonesus; but he himself escaped, with his arms and his companions, and coming to Sinopé, took the city away from the Syrians. 6 These Syrians who were in possession of the city were descended, as it is said, from Syrus, the son of Apollo, and Sinopé, the daughter of Asopis.
[Luc. 23.5b] On hearing this, Lucullus called to mind the advice of Sulla, in his memoirs, which was to think nothing so trustworthy and sure as that which is signified by dreams.
[Luc. 23.7] 7 Being informed now that Mithridates and Tigranes were on the point of entering Lycaonia and Cilicia, with the pursue of invading Asia before war was actually declared, he was amazed that the Armenian, if he cherished the design of attacking the Romans, had not made use of Mithridates for this war when he was at the zenith of his power, nor joined forces with him when he was strong, but had allowed him to be crushed and ruined, and now began a war which offered only faint hopes of success, prostrating himself to the level of those who were unable to stand erect.
[Luc. 24.1] 24 1 But when Machares also, the son of Mithridates, who held the Bosporus, sent Lucullus a crown valued at a thousand pieces of gold, begging to be included in the list of Rome’s friends and allies, Lucullus decided at once that the first war was finished. He therefore left Sornatius there as guardian of Pontus, with six thousand soldiers, 2 while he himself, with twelve thousand footmen and less than three thousand horse, set out for the second war. He seemed to be making a reckless attack, and one which admitted of no saving calculation, upon warlike nations, countless thousands of horsemen, and a boundless region surrounded by deep rivers and mountains covered with perpetual snow. 3 His soldiers, therefore, who were none too well disciplined in any case, followed him reluctantly and rebelliously, while the popular tribunes at Rome raised an outcry against him, and accused him of seeking one war after another, although the city had no need of them, that he might be in perpetual command and never lay down his arms or cease enriching himself from the public dangers. 4 And, in time, these men accomplished their purpose. But Lucullus advanced by forced marches to the Euphrates. Here he found the stream swollen and turbid from the winter storms, and was vexed to think of the delay and trouble which it would cost him to collect boats and build rafts. But at evening the stream began to subside, went on diminishing through the night, and at daybreak the river was running between lofty banks. 5 The natives, observing that sundry small islands in the channel had become visible, and that the current near them was quiet, made obeisance to Lucullus, saying that this had seldom happened before, and that the river had voluntarily made itself tame and gentle for Lucullus, and offered him an easy and speedy passage.
[Luc. 24.6] 6 Accordingly, he took advantage of his opportunity and put his troops across, and a favourable sign accompanied his crossing. Heifers pasture there which are sacred to Persia Artemis, a goddess whom the Barbarians on the further side of the Euphrates hold in the highest honour. These heifers are used only for sacrifice, and at other times are left to roam about the country at large, with brands upon them in the shape of the torch of the goddess. Nor is it a slight or easy matter to catch any of them when they are wanted. 7 One of these heifers, after the army had crossed the Euphrates, came to a certain rock which is deemed sacred to the goddess, and stood upon it, and lowering its head without any compulsion from the usual rope, offered itself to Lucullus for sacrifice. 8 He also sacrificed a bull to the Euphrates, in acknowledgment of his safe passage. Then, after encamping there during that day, on the next and the succeeding days he advanced through Sophené. He wrought no harm to the inhabitants, who came to met him and received his army gladly. Nay, when his soldiers wanted to take a certain fortress which was thought to contain much wealth, “Yonder lies the fortress which we must rather bring low,” said he, pointing to the Taurus in the distance; “these nearer things are reserved for the victors.” Then he went on by forced marches, crossed the Tigris, and entered Armenia.
[Luc. 25.1] 25 1 Since the first messenger who told Tigranes that Lucullus was coming had his head cut off for his pains, no one else would tell him anything, and so he sat in ignorance while the fires of war were already blazing around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him and said that Lucullus would be a great general if he ventured to withstand Tigranes at Ephesus, and did not fly incontinently from Asia at the mere sight of so many myriads of men. 2 Which only proves that it is not every man who can bear much unmixed wine, nor is it any ordinary understanding that does not lose its reckoning in the midst of great prosperity. The first of his friends who ventured to tell him the truth was Mithrobarzanes, and he, too, got no very excellent reward for his boldness of speech. He was sent at once against Lucullus with three thousand horsemen and a large force of infantry, under orders to bring the general alive, but to trample his men under foot.
[Luc. 25.3] 3 Now, part of the army of Lucullus was already preparing to go into camp, and the rest was still coming up, when his scouts told him that the Barbarian was advancing to the attack. Fearing lest the enemy attack his men when they were separated and in disorder, and so throw them into confusion, he himself fell to arranging the encampment, and Sextilius, the legate, was sent at the head of sixteen hundred horsemen and about as many light and heavy infantry, 4 with orders to get near the enemy and wait there until he learned that the main body was safely encamped. Well then, this was what Sextilius wished to do, but he was forced into an engagement by Mithrobarzanes, who boldly charged upon him. A battle ensued, in which Mithrobarzanes fell fighting, and the rest of his forces took to flight and were cut to pieces, all except a few.
[Luc. 25.5] 5 Upon this, Tigranes abandoned Tigranocerta, that great city which he had built, withdrew to the Taurus, and there began collecting his forces from every quarter. Lucullus, however, gave him no time for preparation, but sent out Murena to harass and cut off the forces gathering to join Tigranes, and Sextilius again to hold in check a large body of Arabs which was drawing near the king. 6 At one and the same time Sextilius fell upon the Arabs as they were going into camp, and slew most of them; and Murena, following hard upon Tigranes, seized his opportunity and attacked the king as he was passing through a rough and narrow defile with his army in long column. Tigranes himself fled, abandoning all his baggage, many of the Armenians were slain, and more were captured.
[Luc. 26.1] 26 1 Thus successful in his campaign, Lucullus struck camp and proceeded to Tigranocerta, which city he invested and began to besiege. There were in the city many Greeks who had been transplanted, like others, from Cilicia, and many Barbarians who had suffered the same fate as the Greeks, — Adiabeni, Assyrians, Gordyeni and Cappadocians, whose native cities Tigranes had demolished, and brought their inhabitants to dwell there under compulsion. 2 The city was also full of wealth and votive offerings, since every private person and every prince vied with the king in contributing to its increase and adornment. Therefore Lucullus pressed the siege of the city with vigour, in the belief that Tigranes would not endure it, but contrary to his better judgment and in anger would descend into the plains to offer battle; and his belief was justified. 3 Mithridates, indeed, both by messengers and letters, strongly urged the king not to join battle, but to cut off the enemy’s supplies with his cavalry; Taxiles also, who came from Mithridates and joined the forces of Tigranes, earnestly begged the king to remain on the defensive and avoid the invincible arms of the Romans. And at first Tigranes gave considerate hearing to this advice. 4 But when the Armenians and Gordyeni joined him with all their hosts, and the kings of the Medes and Adiabeni came up with all their hosts, and many Arabs arrived from the sea of Babylonia, and many Albanians from the Caspian sea, together with Iberians who were neighbours to the Albanians; and when not a few of the peoples about the river Araxes, who are not subject to kings, had been induced by favours and gifts to come and join him; and when the banquets of the king, and his councils as well, were full of hopes and boldness and barbaric threats, — then Taxiles ran the risk of being put to death when he opposed the plan of fighting, and Mithridates was thought to be diverting the king from a great success out of mere envy. 5 Wherefore Tigranes would not even wait for him, lest he share in the glory, but advanced with all his army, bitterly lamenting to his friends, as it is said, that he was going to contend with Lucullus alone, not with all the Roman generals put together.
[Luc. 26.6] And his boldness was not altogether that of a mad man, nor without good reason, when he saw so many nations and kings in his following, with phalanxes of heavy infantry and myriads of horsemen. 6 For he was in command of twenty thousand bowmen and slingers, and fifty-five thousand horsemen, of whom seventeen thousand were clad in mail, as Lucullus said in his letter to the Senate; also of one hundred and fifty thousand heavy infantry, some of whom were drawn up in cohorts, and some in phalanxes; also of road-makers, bridge-builders, clearers of rivers, foresters, and ministers to the other needs of an army, to the number of thirty-five thousand. These latter, being drawn up in array behind the fighting men, increased the apparent strength of the army.
[Luc. 27.1] 27 1 When Tigranes had crossed the Taurus, deployed with all his forces, and looked down upon the Roman army investing Tigranocerta, the throng of Barbarians in the city greeted his appearance with shouts and din, and standing on the walls, threateningly pointed out the Armenians to the Romans. 2 When Lucullus held a council of war, some of his officers advised him to give up the siege and lead his army against Tigranes; others urged him not to leave so many enemies in his rear, and not to remit the siege. Whereupon, remarking that each counsel by itself was bad, but both together were good, he divided his army. Murena, with six thousand footmen, he left behind in charge of the siege; while he himself, with twenty-four cohorts, comprising no more than ten thousand heavy infantry, and all the horsemen, slingers, and archers, to the number of about a thousand, set out against the enemy.
[Luc. 27.3] 3 When he had encamped along the river in a great plain, he appeared utterly insignificant to Tigranes, and supplied the king’s flatterers with ground for amusement. Some mocked at the Romans, and others, in pleasantry, cast lots for their spoil, while each of the generals and kings came forward and begged that the task of conquering them might be entrusted to himself alone, and that the king would sit by as a spectator. 4 Then Tigranes, not wishing to be left behind entirely in this play of wit and scoffing, uttered that famous saying: “If they are come as ambassadors, they are too many; if as soldiers, too few.” And for the while they continued their sarcasms and jests. But at daybreak Lucullus led out his forces under arms. Now, the Barbarian army lay to the east of the river. But as the stream takes a turn to the west at the point where it was easiest to ford, and as Lucullus led his troops to the attack in that direction first, and with speed, he seemed to Tigranes to be retreating. 5 So he called Taxiles and said, with a laugh, “Don’t you see that the invincible Roman hoplites are taking to flight?” “O King,” said Taxiles, “I could wish that some marvellous thing might fall to your good fortune; but when these men are merely on a march, they do not put on shining raiment, nor have they shields polished and their helmets uncovered, as now that they have stripped the leathern coverings from their armour. Nay, this splendour means that they are going to fight, and are now advancing upon their enemies.” 6 While Taxiles was yet speaking, the first eagle came in sight, as Lucullus wheeled towards the river, and the cohorts were seen forming in maniples with a view to crossing. Then at last, as though coming out of a drunken stupor, Tigranes cried out two or three times, “Are the men coming against us?” And so, with much tumult and confusion, his multitude formed in battle array, the king himself occupying the centre, and assigning the left wing to the king of the Adiabeni, the right to the king of the Medes. In front of this wing also the greater part of the mail-clad horsemen were drawn up.
[Luc. 27.7] 7 As Lucullus was about to cross the river, some of his officers advised him to beware of the day, which was one of the unlucky days — the Romans call them “black days”. For on that day Caepio and his army perished in a battle with the Cimbri. But Lucullus answered with these memorable words: “Verily, I will make this day, too, a lucky one for the Romans.” Now the day was the sixth of October.
[Luc. 28.1] 28 1 Saying this, and bidding his men be of good courage, he crossed the river, and led the way in person against the enemy. He wore a steel breastplate of glittering scales, and a tasselled cloak, and at once let his sword flash forth from its scabbard, indicating that they must forthwith come to close quarters with men who fought with long range missiles, and eliminate, by the rapidity of their onset, the space in which archery would be effective. 2 But when he saw that the mail-clad horsemen, on whom the greatest reliance was placed, were stationed at the foot of a considerable hill which was crowned by a broad and level space, and that the approach to this was a matter of only four stadia, and neither rough nor steep, he ordered his Thracian and Gallic horsemen to attack the enemy in the flank, and to parry their long spears with their own short swords. 3 (Now the sole resource of the mail-clad horsemen is their long spear, and they have none other whatsoever, either in defending themselves or attacking their enemies, owing to the weight and rigidity of their armour; in this they are, as it were, immured.) Then he himself, with two cohorts, hastened eagerly towards the hill, his soldiers following with all their might, because they saw him ahead of them in armour, enduring all the fatigue of a foot-soldier, and pressing his way along.
[Luc. 28.4] Arrived at the top, and standing in the most conspicuous spot, he cried with a loud voice, “The day is ours, the day is ours, my fellow soldiers!” 4 With these words, he led his men against the mail-clad horsemen, ordering them not to hurl their javelins yet, but taking each his own man, to smite the enemy’s legs and thighs, which are the only parts of these mail-clad horsemen left exposed. However, there was no need of this mode of fighting, for the enemy did not await the Romans, but, with loud cries and in most disgraceful flight, they hurled themselves and their horses, with all their weight, upon the ranks of their own infantry, before it had so much as begun to fight, and so all those tens of thousands were defeated without the infliction of a wound or the sight of blood. 5 But the great slaughter began at once when they fled, or rather tried to fly, for they were prevented from really doing so by the closeness and depth of their own ranks.
[Luc. 28.6] Tigranes rode away at the very outset with a few attendants, and took to flight. Seeing his son also in the same plight, he took off the diadem from his head and, in tears, gave it to him, bidding him save himself as best he could by another route. 6 The young man, however, did not venture to assume the diadem, but gave it to his most trusted slave for safe keeping. This slave happened to be captured, and was brought to Lucullus, and thus even the diadem of Tigranes became a part of the booty. It is said that more than a hundred thousand of the enemy’s infantry perished, while of the cavalry only a few, all told, made their escape. Of the Romans, on the other hand, only a hundred were wounded, and only five killed.
[Luc. 28.7] 7 Antiochus the philosopher makes mention of this battle in his treatise “Concerning Gods,” and says that the sun never looked down on such another. And Strabo, another philosopher, in his “Historical Commentaries,” says that the Romans themselves were ashamed, and laughed one another to scorn for requiring arms against such slaves. Livy also has remarked that the Romans were never in such inferior numbers when they faced an enemy; for the victors were hardly even a twentieth part of the vanquished, but less than this. 8 The Roman generals who were most capable and most experienced in war, praised Lucullus especially for this, that he out-generalled two kings who were most distinguished and powerful by two most opposite tactics, speed and slowness. For he used up Mithridates, at the height of his power, by long delays; but crushed Tigranes by the speed of his operations, being one of the few generals of all time to use delay for greater achievement, and boldness for greater safety.
[Luc. 29.1] 29 1 This was the reason why Mithridates made no haste to be at the battle. He thought Lucullus would carry on the war with his wonted caution and indirectness, and so marched slowly to join Tigranes. At first he met a few Armenians hurrying back over the road in panic fear, and conjectured what had happened; then presently, when he had learned of the defeat from more unarmed and wounded fugitives whom he met, he sought to find Tigranes. 2 And though he found him destitute of all things and humiliated, he did not return his insolent behaviour, but got down from his horse and wept with him over their common sufferings. Then he gave him his own royal equipage, and tried to fill him with courage for the future. And so these kings began again to assemble fresh forces.
[Luc. 29.3] But in the city of Tigranocerta, the Greeks had risen up against the Barbarians and were ready to hand the city over to Lucullus; so he assaulted and took it. 3 The royal treasures in the city he took into his own charge, but the city itself he turned over to his soldiers for plunder, and it contained eight thousand talents in money, together with the usual valuables. Besides this, he gave to each man eight hundred drachmas from the general spoils. 4 On learning that many dramatic artists had been captured in the city, whom Tigranes had collected there from all quarters for the formal dedication of the theatre which he had built, Lucullus employed them for the contests and spectacles with which he celebrated his victories. The Greeks he sent to their native cities, giving them also the means wherewith to make the journey, and likewise the Barbarians who had been compelled to settle there. Thus it came to pass that the dissolution of one city was the restoration of many others, by reason of their recovering their own inhabitants, and they all loved Lucullus as their benefactor and founder.
[Luc. 29.5] 5 And whatever else he did also prospered, in a way worthy of the man, who was ambitious of the praise that is consequent upon righteousness and humanity, rather than of that which follows military successes. For the latter, the army also was in no slight degree, but fortune in the highest degree, responsible; but the former were the manifestations of a gentle and disciplined spirit, and in the exercise of these qualities Lucullus now, without appeal to arms, subdued the Barbarians. The kings of the Arabs came to him, with proffers of their possessions, and the Sopheni joined his cause. 6 The Gordyeni were so affected by his kindness that they were ready to abandon their cities and follow him with their wives and children, in voluntary service. The reason for this was as follows. Zarbienus, the king of the Gordyeni, as has been said, secretly stipulated with Lucullus, through Appius, for an alliance, being oppressed by the tyranny of Tigranes. He was informed against, however, and put to death, and his wife and children perished with him, before the Romans entered Armenia. 7 Lucullus was not unmindful of all this, but on entering the country of the Gordyeni, appointed funeral rites in honour of Zarbienus, and after adorning a pyre with royal raiment and gold and with the spoils taken from Tigranes, set fire to it with his own hand, and joined the friends and kindred of the man in pouring libations upon it, calling him a comrade of his and an ally of the Romans. 8 He also ordered that a monument be erected to his memory at great cost; for many treasures were found in the palace of Zarbienus, including gold and silver, and three million bushels of grain were stored up there, so that the soldiers were plentifully supplied, and Lucullus was admired for not taking a single drachma from the public treasury, but making the war pay for itself.
[Luc. 30.1] 30 1 Here he received an embassy from the king of the Parthians also, inviting him into friendly alliance. This was agreeable to Lucullus, and in his turn he sent ambassadors to the Parthian, but they discovered that he was playing a double game, and secretly asking for Mesopotamia as reward for an alliance with Tigranes. 2 Accordingly, when Lucullus was apprised of this, he determined to ignore Tigranes and Mithridates as exhausted antagonists, and to make trial of the Parthian power by marching against them, thinking it a glorious thing, in a single impetuous onset of war, to throw, like an athlete, three kings in succession, and to make his way, unvanquished and victorious, through three of the greatest empires under the sun.
[Luc. 30.3] 3 Accordingly he sent orders to Sornatius and his fellow commanders in Pontus to bring the army there to him, as he intended to proceed eastward from Gordyené. These officers had already found their soldiers unmanageable and disobedient, but now they discovered that they were utterly beyond control, being unable to move them by any manner of persuasion or compulsion. Nay, they roundly swore that they would not even stay where they were, but would go off and leave Pontus undefended. 4 When news of this was brought to Lucullus, it demoralised his soldiers there also. Their wealth and luxurious life had already made them averse to military service and desirous of leisure, and when they heard of the bold words of their comrades in Pontus, they called them brave men, and said their example must be followed in Gordyené, for their many achievements entitled them to respite from toil and freedom from danger.
[Luc. 31.1] 31 1 Such speeches, and even worse than these, coming to the ears of Lucullus, he gave up his expedition against the Parthians, and marched once more against Tigranes, it being now the height of summer. And yet, after crossing the Taurus, he was discouraged to find the plains still covered with unripe grain, so much later are the seasons there, owing to the coolness of the atmosphere. 2 However, he descended from the mountains, routed the Armenians who twice or thrice ventured to attack him, and then plundered their villages without fear, and, by taking away the grain which had been stored up for Tigranes, reduced his enemy to the straits which he had been fearing for himself. Then he challenged them to battle by encompassing their camp with a moat, and by ravaging their territory before their eyes; but this did not move them, so often had they been defeated. He therefore broke camp and marched against Artaxata, the royal residence of Tigranes, where were his wives and young children, thinking that Tigranes would not give these up without fighting.
[Luc. 31.3] 3 It is said that Hannibal the Carthaginian, after Antiochus had been conquered by the Romans, left him and went to Artaxas the Armenian, to whom he gave many excellent suggestions and instructions. For instance, observing that a section of the country which had the greatest natural advantages and attractions was lying idle and neglected, he drew up a plan for a city there, and then brought Artaxas to the place and showed him its possibilities, and urged him to undertake the building. 4 The king was delighted, and begged Hannibal to superintend the work himself, whereupon a very great and beautiful city arose there, which was named after the king, and proclaimed the capital of Armenia.
[Luc. 31.5] When Lucullus marched against this city, Tigranes could not suffer it quietly, but put himself at the head of his forces, and on the fourth day encamped over against the Romans, keeping the river Arsania between himself and them, which they must of necessity cross on their way to Artaxata. 5 Thereupon Lucullus sacrificed to the gods, in full assurance that the victory was already his, and then crossed the river with twelve cohorts in the van, and the rest disposed so as to prevent the enemy from closing in upon his flanks. For large bodies of horsemen and picked soldiers confronted him, and these were covered by Mardian mounted archers and Iberian lancers, on whom Tigranes relied beyond any other mercenaries, deeming them the most warlike. 6 However, they did not shine in action, but after a slight skirmish with the Roman cavalry, gave way before the advancing infantry, scattered to right and left in flight, and drew after them the cavalry in pursuit. On the dispersion of these troops, Tigranes rode out at the head of his cavalry, and when Lucullus saw their splendour and their numbers he was afraid. 7 He therefore recalled his cavalry from their pursuit of the flying enemy, and taking the lead of his troops in person, set upon the Atropateni, who were stationed opposite him with the magnates of the king’s following, and before coming to close quarters, sent them off in panic flight. Of three kings who together confronted the Romans, Mithridates of Pontus seems to have fled most disgracefully, for he could not endure even their shouting. 8 The pursuit was long and lasted through the whole night, and the Romans were worn out, not only with killing their enemies, but also with taking prisoners and getting all sorts of booty. Livy says that in the former battle a greater number of the enemy, but in this more men of high station were slain and taken prisoners.
[Luc. 32.1] 32 1 Elated and emboldened by this victory, Lucullus purposed to advance further into the interior and subdue the Barbarian realm utterly. But, contrary to what might have been expected at the time of the autumnal equinox, severe winter weather was encountered, which generally covered the ground with snow, and even when the sky was clear produced hoar frost and ice, owing to which the horses could not well drink of the rivers, so excessive was the cold, nor could they easily cross them, since the ice broke, and cut the horses’ sinews with its jagged edges. 2 Most of the country was thickly shaded, full of narrow defiles, and marshy, so that it kept the soldiers continually wet; they were covered with snow while they marched, and spent the night uncomfortably in damp places. Accordingly, they had not followed Lucullus for many days after the battle when they began to object. At first they sent their tribunes to him with entreaties to desist, then they held more tumultuous assemblies, and shouted in their tents at night, which seems to have been characteristic of a mutinous army. 3 And yet Lucullus plied them with entreaties, calling upon them to possess their souls in patience until they had taken and destroyed the Armenian Carthage, the work of their most hated foe, meaning Hannibal. But since he could not persuade them, he led them back, and crossing the Taurus by another pass, descended into the country called Mygdonia, which is fertile and open to the sun, and contains a large and populous city, called Nisibis by the Barbarians, Antioch in Mygdonia by the Greeks. 4 The nominal defender of this city, by virtue of his rank, was Gouras, a brother of Tigranes; but its actual defender, by virtue of his experience and skill as an engineer, was Callimachus, the man who gave Lucullus most trouble at Amisus also. But Lucullus established his camp before it, laid siege to it in every way, and in a short time took the city by storm. 5 To Gouras, who surrendered himself into his hands, he gave kind treatment; but to Callimachus, who promised to reveal secret stores of great treasure, he would not hearken. Instead, he ordered him to be brought in chains, that he might be punished for destroying Amisus by fire, and thereby robbing Lucullus of the object of his ambition, which was to show kindness to the Greeks.
[Luc. 33.1] 33 1 Up to this point, one might say that fortune had followed Lucullus and fought on his side; but from now on, as though a favouring breeze had failed him, he had to force every issue, and met with obstacles everywhere. He still displayed the bravery and patience of a good leader, but his undertakings brought him no new fame or favour; indeed, so ill-starred and devious was his course, that he came near losing that which he had already won. 2 And he himself was not least to blame for this. He was not disposed to court the favour of the common soldier, and thought that everything that was done to please one’s command only dishonoured and undermined one’s authority. Worst of all, not even with men of power and of equal rank with himself could he readily co-operate; he despised them all, and thought them of no account as compared with himself. 3 These bad qualities Lucullus is said to have had, but no more than these. He was tall and handsome, a powerful speaker, and equally able in the forum and the field.
[Luc. 33.4] Well, then, Sallust says that his soldiers were ill-disposed towards him at the very beginning of the war, before Cyzicus, and again before Amisus, because they were compelled to spend two successive winters in camp. 4 The winters that followed also vexed them. They spent them either in the enemy’s country, or among the allies, encamped under open sky. Not once did Lucullus take his army into a city that was Greek and friendly. In their disaffection, they received the greatest support from the popular leaders at Rome. These envied Lucullus and denounced him for protracting the war through love of power and love of wealth. They said he all but had in his own sole power Cilicia, Asia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Pontus, Armenia, and the regions extending to the Phasis, and that now he had actually plundered the palaces of Tigranes, as if he had been sent, not to subdue the kings, but to strip them. 5 These were the words, they say, of Lucius Quintus, one of the praetors, to whom most of all the people listened when they passed a vote to send men who should succeed Lucullus in the command of his province. They voted also that many of the soldiers under him should be released from military service.
[Luc. 34.1] 34 1 To these factors in the case, so unfavourable in themselves, there was added another, which most of all vitiated the undertakings of Lucullus. This was Publius Clodius, a man of wanton violence, and full of all arrogance and boldness. He was a brother of the wife of Lucullus, a woman of the most dissolute ways, whom he was actually accused of debauching. 2 At this time he was in service with Lucullus, and did not get all the honour which he thought his due. He thought a foremost place his due, and when many were preferred before him because of his evil character, he worked secretly upon the soldiers who had been commanded by Fimbria, and tried to incite them against Lucullus, disseminating among them speeches well adapted to men who were neither unwilling nor unaccustomed to have their favour courted. These were the men whom Fimbria had once persuaded to kill the consul Flaccus, and choose himself for their general. 3 They therefore gladly listened to Clodius also, and called him the soldier’s friend. For he pretended to be incensed in their behalf, if there was to be no end of their countless wars and toils, but they were rather to wear out their lives in fighting with every nation and wandering over every land, receiving no suitable reward for such service, but convoying the waggons and camels of Lucullus laden with golden beakers set with precious stones, 4 while the soldiers of Pompey, citizens now, were snugly ensconced with wives and children in the possession of fertile lands and prosperous cities, — not for having driven Mithridates and Tigranes into uninhabitable deserts, nor for having demolished the royal palaces of Asia, but for having fought with wretched exiles in Spain and runaway slaves in Italy. “Why, then,” he would cry, “if our campaigns are never to come to an end, do we not reserve what is left of our bodies, and our lives, for a general in whose eyes the wealth of his soldiers is his fairest honour?”
[Luc. 34.5] 5 For such reasons as these the army of Lucullus was demoralised, and refused to follow him either against Tigranes, or against Mithridates, who had come back into Pontus from Armenia, and was trying to restore his power there. They made the winter their excuse for lingering in Gordyené, expecting every moment that Pompey, or some other commander, would be sent out to succeed Lucullus.
[Luc. 35.1] 35 1 But when tidings came that Mithridates had defeated Fabius, and was on the march against Sornatius and Triarius, they were struck with shame and followed Lucullus. But Triarius, who was ambitious to snatch the victory, which he thought assured, before Lucullus, who was near, should come up, was defeated in a great battle. It is said that over seven thousand Romans fell, among whom were a hundred and fifty centurions, and twenty-four tribunes; and their camp was captured by Mithridates. 2 But Lucullus, coming up a few days afterward, hid Triarius from the search of his infuriated soldiers. Then, since Mithridates was unwilling to give fight but lay waiting for Tigranes, who was coming down with a large force, he determined to anticipate the junction of their armies, and march back to meet Tigranes in battle. 3 But while he was on the way thither, the Fimbrian soldiers mutinied and left their ranks, declaring that they were discharged from service by decree of the people, and that Lucullus no longer had the right to command them, since the provinces had been assigned to others. Accordingly, there was no expedient, however much beneath his dignity, to which Lucullus did not force himself to resort, — entreating the soldiers man by man, going about from tent to tent in humility and tears, and actually taking some of the men by the hand in supplication. 4 But they rejected his advances, and threw their empty purses down before him, bidding him to fight the enemy alone, since he alone knew how to get rich from them. However, at the request of the other soldiers, the Fimbrians were constrained to agree to remain during the summer; but if, in the meantime, no enemy should come down to fight them, they were to be dismissed. Lucullus was obliged to content himself with these terms, or else to be deserted and give up the country to the Barbarians. 5 He therefore simply held his soldiers together, without forcing them any more, or leading them out to battle. Their remaining with him was all he could expect, and he looked on helplessly while Tigranes ravaged Cappadocia and might have resumed his insolent ways, — a monarch whom he had reported by letter to the Senate as completely subdued. Besides, the commissioners were now with him, who had been sent out to regulate the affairs of Pontus, on the supposition that it was a secure Roman possession. 6 And lo, when they came, they saw that Lucullus was not even his own master, but was mocked and insulted by his soldiers. These went so far in their outrageous treatment of their general, that, at the close of the summer, they donned their armour, drew their swords, and challenged to battle an enemy who was nowhere near, but had already withdrawn. Then they shouted their war cries, brandished their weapons in the air, and departed from the camp, calling men to witness that the time had expired during which they had agreed to remain with Lucullus.
[Luc. 35.7] 7 The rest of the soldiers Pompey summoned by letter, for he had already been appointed to conduct the war against Mithridates and Tigranes, because he won the favour of the people and flattered their leaders. But the Senate and the nobility considered Lucullus a wronged man. He had been superseded, they said, not in a war, but in a triumph, and had been forced to relinquish and turn over to others, not his campaign, but the prizes of victory in his campaign.
[Luc. 36.1] 36 1 But to those who were on the spot, what happened there seemed still greater matter for wrath and indignation. For Lucullus was not allowed to bestow reward and or punishments for what had been done in the war, nor would Pompey even suffer any one to visit him, or to pay any heed to the edicts and regulations which he made in concert with the ten commissioners, but prevented it by issuing counter-edicts, and by the terror which his presence with a larger force inspired. 2 Nevertheless, their friends decided to bring the two men together, and so they met in a certain village of Galatia. They greeted one another amicably, and each congratulated the other on his victories. Lucullus was the elder man, but Pompey’s prestige was the greater, because he had conducted more campaigns, and celebrated two triumphs. Fasces wreathed with laurel were carried before both commanders in token of their victories, 3 and since Pompey had made a long march through waterless and arid regions, the laurel which wreathed his fasces was withered. When the lictors of Lucullus noticed this, they considerately gave Pompey’s lictors some of their own laurel, which was fresh and green. This circumstance was interpreted as a good omen by the friends of Pompey; for, in fact, the exploits of Lucullus did adorn the command of Pompey. 4 However, their conference resulted in no equitable agreement, but they left it still more estranged from one another. Pompey also annulled the ordinances of Lucullus, and took away all but sixteen hundred of his soldiers. These he left to share his triumph, but even these did not follow him very cheerfully. 5 To such a marvellous degree was Lucullus either unqualified or unfortunate as regards the first and highest of all requisites in a leader. Had this power of gaining the affection of his soldiers been added to his other gifts, which were so many and so great, — courage, diligence, wisdom, and justice, — the Roman empire would not have been bounded by the Euphrates, 6 but by the outer confines of Asia, and the Hyrcanian sea; for all the other nations had already been subdued by Tigranes, and in the time of Lucullus the Parthian power was not so great as it proved to be in the time of Crassus, nor was it so well united, nay rather, owing to intestine and neighbouring wars, it had not even strength enough to repel the wanton attacks of the Armenians.
[Luc. 36.7] Now my own opinion is that the harm Lucullus did his country through his influence upon others, was greater than the good he did her himself. 7 For his trophies in Armenia, standing on the borders of Parthia, and Tigranocerta, and Nisibis, and the vast wealth brought to Rome from these cities, and the display in his triumph of the captured diadem of Tigranes, incited Crassus to his attack upon Asia; he thought that the Barbarians were spoil and booty, and nothing else. It was not long, however, before he encountered the Parthian arrows, and proved that Lucullus had won his victories, not through the folly and cowardice of his enemies, but through his own daring and ability. This, however, is later history.
[Luc. 37.1] 37 1 Now when Lucullus had returned to Rome, he found, in the first place, that his brother Marcus was under prosecution by Gaius Memmius for his acts as quaestor under the administration of Sulla. Marcus, indeed, was acquitted, but Memmius then turned his attack upon Lucullus, and strove to excite the people against him. He charged him with diverting much property to his own uses, and with needlessly protracting the war, and finally persuaded the people not to grant him a triumph. 2 Lucullus strove mightily against this decision, and the foremost and most influential men mingled with the tribes, and by much entreaty and exertion at last persuaded the people to allow him to celebrate a triumph; not, however, like some, a triumph which was startling and tumultuous from the length of the procession and the multitude of objects displayed. Instead, he decorated the circus of Flaminius with the arms of the enemy, which were very numerous, and with the royal engines of war; and this was a great spectacle in itself, and far from contemptible. But in the procession, a few of the mail-clad horsemen and ten of the scythe-bearing chariots moved along, together with sixty of the king’s friends and generals. A hundred and ten bronze-beaked ships of war were also carried along, a golden statue of Mithridates himself, six feet in height, a wonderful shield adorned with precious stones, twenty litters of silver vessels, and thirty-two litters of gold beakers, armour, and money. 4 All this was carried by men. Then there were eight mules which bore golden couches, fifty-six bearing ingots of silver, and a hundred and seven more bearing something less than two million seven hundred thousand pieces of silver coin. There were also tablets with records of the sums of money already paid by Lucius to Pompey for the war against the pirates, and to the keepers of the public treasury, as well as of the fact that each of his soldiers had received nine hundred and fifty drachmas. To crown all, Lucullus gave a magnificent feast to the city, and to the surrounding villages called Vici.
[Luc. 38.1] 38 1 After his divorce from Clodia, who was a licentious and base woman, he married Servilia, a sister of Cato, but this, too, was an unfortunate marriage. For it lacked none of the evils which Clodia had brought in her train except one, namely, the scandal about her brothers. In all other respects Servilia was equally vile and abandoned, and yet Lucullus forced himself to tolerate her, out of regard for Cato. At last, however, he put her away.
[Luc. 38.2] 2 The Senate had conceived wondrous hopes that in him it would find an opposer of the tyranny of Pompey and a champion of the aristocracy, with all the advantage of great glory and influence; but he quitted and abandoned public affairs, either because he saw that they were already beyond proper control and diseased, or, as some say, because he had his fill of glory, and felt that the unfortunate issue of his many struggles and toils entitled him to fall back upon a life of ease and luxury. 3 Some commend him for making such a change, and thereby escaping the unhappy lot of Marius, who, after his Cimbrian victories and the large and fair successes which were so famous, was unwilling to relax his efforts and enjoy the honours won, but with an insatiate desire for glory and power, old man that he was, fought with young men in the conduct of the state, and so drove headlong into terrible deeds, and sufferings still more terrible still. Cicero, say these, would have had a better old age if he had taken in sail after the affair of Catiline, and Scipio, too, if he had given himself pause after adding Numantia to Carthage; 4 for a political cycle, too, has a sort of natural termination, and political no less than athletic contests are absurd, after the full vigour of life has departed. Crassus and Pompey, on the other hand, ridiculed Lucullus for giving himself up to pleasure and extravagance, as if a luxurious life were not even more unsuitable to men of his years than political and military activities.
[Luc. 39.1] 39 1 And it is true that in the life of Lucullus, as in an ancient comedy, one reads in the first part of political measures and military commands, and in the latter part of drinking bouts, and banquets, and what might pass for revel-routs, and torch-races, and all manner of frivolity. 2 For I must count as frivolity his costly edifices, his ambulatories and baths, and still more his paintings and statues (not to speak of his devotion to these arts), which he collected at enormous outlays, pouring out into such channels the vast and splendid wealth which he accumulated from his campaigns. Even now, when luxury has increased so much, the gardens of Lucullus are counted among the most costly of the imperial gardens. 3 As for his works on the sea-shore and in the vicinity of Neapolis, where he suspended hills over vast tunnels, girdled his residences with zones of sea and with streams for the breeding of fish, and built dwellings in the sea, — when Tubero the Stoic saw them, he called him Xerxes in a toga. 4 He had also country establishments near Tusculum, with observatories, and extensive open banqueting halls and cloisters. Pompey once visited these, and chided Lucullus because he had arranged his country seat in the best possible way for summer, but had made it uninhabitable in winter. Whereupon Lucullus burst out laughing and said: “Do you suppose, then, that I have less sense than cranes and storks, and do not change residences according to the seasons?” 5 A praetor was once making ambitious plans for a public spectacle, and asked of him some purple cloaks for the adornment of a chorus. Lucullus replied that he would investigate, and if he had any, would give them to him. The next day he asked the praetor how many he wanted, and on his replying that a hundred would suffice, bade him take twice that number. The poet Flaccus alluded to this when he said that he did not regard a house as wealthy in which the treasures that were overlooked and unobserved were not more than those which met the eye.
[Luc. 40.1] 40 1 The daily repasts of Lucullus were such as the newly rich affect. Not only with his dyed coverlets, and beakers set with precious stones, and choruses and dramatic recitations, but also with his arrays of all sorts of meats and daintily prepared dishes, did he make himself the envy of the vulgar. 2 A saying of Pompey’s, when he was ill, was certainly very popular. His physicians had prescribed a thrush for him to eat, and his servants said that a thrush could not be found anywhere in the summer season except where Lucullus kept them fattening. Pompey, however, would not suffer them to get one from there, but bade them prepare something else that was easily to be had, remarking as he did so to his physician, “What! must a Pompey have died if a Lucullus were not luxurious?” 3 And Cato, who was a friend of his, and a relation by marriage, was nevertheless much offended by his life and habits. Once when a youthful senator had delivered a tedious and lengthy discourse, all out of season, on frugality and temperance, Cato rose and said; “Stop there! you get wealth like Crassus, you live like Lucullus, but you talk like Cato.” Some, however, while they say that these words were actually uttered, do not say that they were spoken by Cato.
[Luc. 41.1] 41 1 Moreover, that Lucullus took not only pleasure but pride in this way of living, is clear from the anecdotes recorded of him. It is said, for instance, that he entertained for many successive days some Greeks who had come up to Rome, and that they, with genuinely Greek scruples, were at last ashamed to accept his invitation, on the ground that he was incurring so much expense every day on their account; 2 whereupon Lucullus said to them with a smile, “Some of this expense, my Grecian friends, is indeed on your account; most of it, however, is on account of Lucullus.” And once, when he was dining alone, and a modest repast of one course had been prepared for him, he was angry, and summoned the servant who had the matter in charge. The servant said that he did not suppose, since there were no guests, that he wanted anything very costly. “What sayest thou?” said the master, “dost thou not know that to day Lucullus dines with Lucullus?” 3 While this matter was much talked of in the city, as was natural, Cicero and Pompey came up to him as he was idling in the forum. Cicero was one of his most intimate friends, and although the matter of the command of the army had led to some coolness between him and Pompey, still they were accustomed to frequent and friendly intercourse and conversation with one another. 4 Accordingly, Cicero saluted him, and asked how he was disposed towards receiving a petition. “Most excellently well,” said Lucullus, and invited them to make their petition. “We desire,” said Cicero, “to dine with you to day just as you would have dined by yourself.” Lucullus demurred to this, and begged the privilege of selecting a later day, but they refused to allow it, nor would they suffer him to confer with his servants, that he might not order any thing more provided than what was provided for himself. 5 Thus much, however, and no more, they did allow him at his request, namely, to tell one of his servants in their presence that he would dine that day in the Apollo. Now this was the name of one of his costly apartments, and he thus outwitted the men without their knowing it. For each of his dining-rooms, as it seems, had a fixed allowance for the dinner served there, as well as its own special apparatus and equipment, so that his slaves, on hearing where he wished to dine, knew just how much the dinner was to cost, and what were to be its decorations and arrangements. Now the usual cost of a dinner in the Apollo was fifty thousand drachmas, and that was the sum laid out on the present occasion. 6 Pompey was amazed at the speed with which the banquet was prepared, notwithstanding it had cost so much. In these ways, then, Lucullus used his wealth wantonly, as though it were in very truth a Barbarian prisoner-of war.
[Luc. 42.1] 42 1 But what he did in the establishment of a library deserves warm praise. He got together many books, and they were well written, and his use of them was more honourable to him than his acquisition of them. His libraries were thrown open to all, and the cloisters surrounding them, and the study-rooms, were accessible without restriction to the Greeks, who constantly repaired thither as to an hostelry of the Muses, and spent the day with one another, in glad escape from their other occupations. 2 Lucullus himself also often spent his leisure hours there with them, walking about in the cloisters with their scholars, and he would assist their statesmen in whatever they desired. And in general his house was a home and prytaneium for the Greeks who came to Rome. He was fond of all philosophy, and well-disposed and friendly towards every school, but from the first he cherished a particular and zealous love for the Academy, 3 not the New Academy, so called, although that school at the time had a vigorous representative of the doctrines of Carneades in Philo, but the Old Academy, which at that time was headed by a persuasive man and powerful speaker in the person of Antiochus of Ascalon. This man Lucullus hastened to make his friend and companion, and arrayed him against the disciples of Philo, of whom Cicero also was one. 4 Indeed, Cicero wrote a noble treatise on the doctrines of this sect, in which he has put the argument in support of “apprehension” into the mouth of Lucullus, and carried the opposing argument himself. The book is entitled “Lucullus.”
[Luc. 42.5] Lucullus and Cicero were, as I have said, ardent friends, and members of the same political party, for Lucullus had not withdrawn himself entirely from political life, 5 although he lost no time in leaving to Crassus and Cato the ambitious struggle for the chief place and the greatest power, since he saw that it involved both peril and ignominy. For those who looked with suspicion upon the power of Pompey, made Crassus and Cato the champions of the senatorial party when Lucullus declined the leadership. But Lucullus would still go to the forum in support of his friends, and also to the Senate, whenever there was need of combating some ambitious scheme of Pompey’s. 6 Thus, the dispositions which Pompey made after his conquest of the kings, Lucullus made null and void, and his proposal for a generous distribution of lands to his soldiers, Lucullus, with the co-operation of Cato, prevented from being granted. Pompey therefore took refuge in an alliance, or rather a conspiracy, with Crassus and Caesar, and by filling the city with his armed soldiery and expelling from the forum the partisans of Cato and Lucullus, got his measures ratified.
[Luc. 42.7] 7 As these proceedings were resented by the nobles, the partisans of Pompey produced a certain Vettius, whom, as they declared, they had caught plotting against the life of Pompey. So the man was examined in the Senate, where he accused sundry persons, but before the people he named Lucullus as the man who had engaged him to kill Pompey. 8 However, no one believed his story, nay, it was at once clear that the fellow had been put forward by the partisans of Pompey to make false and malicious charges, and the fraud was made all the plainer when, a few days afterwards, his dead body was cast out of the prison. It was said, indeed, that he had died a natural death, but he bore the marks of throttling and violence, and the opinion was that he had been taken off by the very men who had engaged his services.
[Luc. 43.1] 43 1 Of course this induced Lucullus to withdraw even more from public life. And when Cicero was banished from the city, and Cato was sent out to Cyprus, he retired altogether. Even before his death, it is said that his understanding was affected and gradually faded away. But Cornelius Nepos says that Lucullus lost his mind not from old age, nor yet from disease, but that he was disabled by drugs administered to him by one of his freedmen, Callisthenes; 2 that the drugs were given him by Callisthenes in order to win more of his love, in the belief that they had such a power, but they drove him from his senses and overwhelmed his reason, so that even while he was still alive, his brother managed his property. However, when he died, the people grieved just as much as if his death had come at the culmination of his military and political services, and flocked together, and tried to compel the young nobles who had carried the body into the forum to bury it in the Campus Martius, where Sulla also had been buried. 3 But no one had expected this, and preparations for it were not easy, and so his brother, by prayers and supplications, succeeded in persuading them to suffer to take place on the estate at Tusculum, where preparations for it had been made. Nor did he himself long survive Lucullus, but, as in age and reputation he came a little behind him, so did he also in the time of his death, having been a most affectionate brother.

## Comparison of Cimon and Lucullus

[Comp. Cim.–Luc. 1.1] 521 1 1 One might deem Lucullus especially happy in his end, from the fact that he died before that constitutional change had come, which fate was already contriving by means of the civil wars. His country was in a distempered state when he laid down his life, but still she was free. 2 And in this respect, more than any other, he is like Cimon. For Cimon also died before Greece was confounded, and while she was at the acme of her power. He died, however, in the field, and at the head of an army, not exhausted or of a wandering mind, nor yet making feastings and revellings the crowning prize for arms and campaigns and trophies. Plato banters the followers of Orpheus for declaring that for those who have lived rightly, there is laid up in Hades a treasure of everlasting intoxication. 3 Leisure, no doubt, and quiet, and the pursuit of pleasantly speculative learning, furnish a most fitting solace for a man of years who has retired from wars and politics. But to divert fair achievements to pleasure as their final end, and then to sport and wanton at the head of Aphrodite’s train, as a sequel to wars and fightings, was not worthy of the noble Academy, nor yet of one who would follow Xenocrates, but rather of one who leaned towards Epicurus. 4 And this is the more astonishing, because contrariwise, Cimon seems to have been of ill repute and unrestrained in his youth, while Lucullus was disciplined and sober. Better, surely, is the man in whom the change is for the better; for it argues a more wholesome nature when its evil withers and its good ripens.
[Comp. Cim.–Luc. 1.5] And further, though both alike were wealthy, they did not make a like use of their wealth. 5 There is no comparing the south wall of the Acropolis, which was completed with the moneys brought home by Cimon, with the palaces and sea-washed Belvideres at Neapolis, which Lucullus built out of the spoils of the Barbarians. Nor can the table of Cimon be likened to that of Lucullus; the one was democratic and charitable, the other sumptuous and oriental. 6 The one, at slight outlay, gave daily sustenance to many; the other, at large cost, was prepared for a few luxurious livers. It may be said, indeed, that the difference in state was due to the difference in time. For it is at least possible that Cimon also, if he had retired after his active campaigns to an old age which knew neither war nor politics, might have led an even more ostentatious and pleasure-loving life. He was fond of wine and given to display, and his relations with women, as I have said before, were scandalous. 7 But success in strenuous achievement, affording as it does a higher pleasure, gives public-spirited and ambitious natures no time to indulge the baser appetites, which are forgotten. At any rate, if Lucullus also had ended his days in active military command, not even the most carping and censorious spirit, I think, could have brought accusation against him. Thus much concerning their manner of life.
[Comp. Cim.–Luc. 2.1] 2 1 In war, it is plain that both were good fighters, both on land and sea. But just as those athletes who win crowns in wrestling and the pancratium on a single day are called, by custom, “Victors-extraordinary,” so Cimon, who in a single day crowned Greece with the trophies of a land and sea victory, may justly have a certain pre-eminence among generals. And further, it was his country which conferred imperial power upon Lucullus, 2 whereas Cimon conferred it upon his. The one added his foreign conquests to a country which already ruled her allies; the other found his country obeying others, and gave her command over her allies and victory over her foreign foes, 522 by defeating the Persians and driving them from the sea, and by persuading the Lacedaemonians voluntarily to relinquish the command. 3 Granted that it is the most important task of a leader to secure prompt obedience through goodwill, Lucullus was despised by his own soldiers, while Cimon was admired by the allies. His soldiers deserted the one; the allies came over to the other. The one came back home abandoned by those whom he commanded when he set out; the other was sent out with allies to do the commands of others, but before he sailed home he himself gave commands to those allies, having successfully secured for his city three of the most difficult objects at once, namely, peace with the enemy, leadership of the allies, and concord with the Lacedaemonians.
[Comp. Cim.–Luc. 2.4] 4 Again, both attempted to subvert great empires and to subdue all Asia, and both left their work unfinished: Cimon through ill fortune pure and simple, for he died at the head of his army and at the height of his success; but Lucullus one cannot altogether acquit of blame, whether he was ignorant of, or would not attend to the grievances and complaints among his soldiery, in consequence of which he became so bitterly hated. 5 Or perhaps this has its counterpart in the life of Cimon, for he was brought to trial by his fellow citizens and finally ostracised, in order that for ten years, as Plato says, they might not hear his voice. For aristocratic natures are little in accord with the multitude, and seldom please it, but by so often using force to rectify its aberrations, they vex and annoy it, just as physicians’ bandages vex and annoy, although they bring the dislocated members into their natural position. Perhaps, then, both come off about alike on this count.
[Comp. Cim.–Luc. 3.1] 3 1 But Lucullus was much the greater in war. He was the first Roman to cross the Taurus with an army; he passed the Tigris and captured and burned the royal cities of Asia, — Tigranocerta, Cabira, Sinopé, and Nisibis, before the eyes of their kings; 2 he made his own the regions to the north as far as the Phasis, to the east as far as Media, and to the south as far as the Red Sea, through the assistance of the Arabian kings; he annihilated the forces of the hostile kings, and failed only in the capture of their persons, since like wild beasts they fled away into deserts and trackless and impenetrable forests. 3 Strong proof of his superiority is seen in this, that the Persians, since they had suffered no great harm at the hands of Cimon, straightway arrayed themselves against the Greeks, and overwhelmed and destroyed that large force of theirs in Egypt; whereas, after Lucullus, Tigranes and Mithridates availed nothing: the latter, already weak and disabled by his first struggles, did not once dare to show Pompey his forces outside their camp, but fled away to the Bosporus, and there put an end to his life; 4 as for Tigranes, he hastened to throw himself, while unrobed and unarmed, at the feet of Pompey, and taking the diadem off his head, laid it there upon the ground, flattering Pompey thus not with his own exploits, but with those for which Lucullus had celebrated a triumph. At any rate, he was as much delighted to get back the insignia of his royalty as though he had been robbed of them before. Greater therefore is the general, as is the athlete, who hands over his antagonist to his successor in a weaker plight.
[Comp. Cim.–Luc. 3.5] 5 Moreover, and still further, Cimon made his onsets when the power of the king had been broken, and the pride of the Persians humbled by great defeats and incessant routs at the hands of Themistocles, Pausanias, and Leotychides, and easily conquered the bodies of men whose spirits had been defeated beforehand and lay prone. 523 But when Tigranes encountered Lucullus, he had known no defeat in many battles, and was in exultant mood. 6 In point of numbers also, those who were overpowered by Cimon are not worthy of comparison with those who united against Lucullus. Therefore, one who takes everything into consideration finds it hard to reach a decision. Heaven seems to have been kindly disposed to both, directing the one as to what he must perform, and the other as to what he must avoid. Both, therefore, may be said to have received the vote of the gods as noble and god-like natures.

## Nicias

[Nic. 1.1] 523 1 1 I think that Nicias is a suitable parallel to Crassus, and the Sicilian to the Parthian disaster. I must therefore at once, and in all modesty, entreat my readers not to imagine for an instant that, in my narration of what Thucydides has inimitably set forth, surpassing even himself in pathos, vividness, and variety, I am so disposed as was Timaeus. 2 He, confidently hoping to excel Thucydides in skill, and to make Philistus seem altogether tedious and clumsy, pushes his history along through the conflicts and sea-fights and harangues which those writers had already handled with the greatest success, showing himself, in rivalry with them, not even so much as
[Nic. 1.1b] “By Lydian car a footman slowly plodding,”
[Nic. 1.1c] to use Pindar’s comparison, nay rather, a perfect example of senile learning and youthful conceit, and, in the words of Diphilus,
[Nic. 1.1d] “Obese, stuffed to the full with Sicilian grease.”
[Nic. 1.3] 3 Indeed, he often lapses unawares into the manner of Xenarchus, as, for instance, when he says he thinks it was a bad omen for the Athenians that Nicias, whose name was derived from victory, declined at first to head their expedition; also that, by the mutilation of the “Hermae,” Heaven indicated to them in advance that by the hands of Hermocrates the son of Hermon they were to suffer most of their reverses during the war; and, further, that it was fitting that Heracles should aid the Syracusans, for the sake of their goddess Cora, who delivered Cerberus into his hands, but should be angry with the Athenians, because they were trying to succour the Egestaeans, although they were descendants of the Trojans, whose city he had once destroyed because of wrong done him by Laomedon their king.
[Nic. 1.4] 4 As for Timaeus, he may possibly have been moved to write thus in the exercise of the same critical taste which led him to correct the language of Philistus and abuse Plato and Aristotle; but as for me, I feel that jealous rivalry with other writers in matters of diction is altogether undignified and pedantic, and if it be practised toward what is beyond all imitation, utterly silly. 5 At all events, those deeds which Thucydides and Philistus have set forth, — since I cannot entirely pass them by, indicating as they do the nature of my hero and the disposition which lay hidden beneath his great many sufferings, — I have run over briefly, and with no unnecessary detail, in order to escape the reputation of utter carelessness and sloth; but those details which have escaped most writers, and which others have mentioned casually, or which are found on ancient votive offerings or in public decrees, these I have tried to collect, not massing together useless material of research, but handing on such as furthers the appreciation of character and temperament.
[Nic. 2.1] 2 1 Accordingly, I may say of Nicias, in the first place, what Aristotle wrote, namely, that the three best citizens of Athens, — men of hereditary good will and friendship for the people, — were Nicias the son of Niceratus, Thucydides the son of Melesias, and Theramenes the son of Hagnon. However, this was true of the last in lesser degree than of the other two, because he has been flouted for inferior parentage as an alien from Ceos; and on account of his not being steadfast, but ever trying to court both sides in his political career, was nicknamed “Cothurnus.” 2 Of the other two, Thucydides was the older man, and as head of the aristocratic party, — the party of the “Good and True,” — often opposed Pericles in his efforts to win the favour of the people. Nicias was a younger man. He was held in some repute even while Pericles was still living, so that he was not only associated with him as general, but frequently had independent command himself; after Pericles was dead, Nicias was at once put forth into the position of leader, especially by the party of the rich and notable. These made him their champion to face the disgusting boldness of Cleon.
[Nic. 3.1] 3 And yet, for that matter, the common people also held him in favour and aided his ambitions. For although Cleon had great influence with them, “by coddling them, and giving frequent jobs for pay,” yet the very men whose favour he thus sought to gain were aware of his rapacity and fierce effrontery, and for the most part preferred Nicias as their champion. The dignity of Nicias was not of the harsh, offensive sort, but was blended with much circumspection, and won control of the people from the very fact that he was thought to be afraid of them. 4 Timid as he was by nature, and distrustful of success, in war he managed to succeed in hiding his cowardice under a cloak of good fortune, for he was uniformly successful as a general; while in political life his nervousness, and the ease with which he could be put into confusion by accusers, actually tended to make him popular, and gave him in high degree that power which comes from the favour of the people, because they fear men who scorn them, but exalt men who fear them. The multitude can have no greater honour shown them by their superiors than not to be despised.
3 1 Now Pericles led the city by virtue of his native excellence and powerful eloquence, and had no need to assume any persuasive mannerisms with the multitude; but Nicias, since he lacked such powers, but had excessive wealth, sought by means of this to win the leadership of the people. 2 And since he despaired of his ability to vie successfully with the versatile buffoonery by which Cleon catered to the pleasure of the Athenians, he tried to captivate the people by choral and gymnastic exhibitions, and other like prodigalities, outdoing in the costliness and elegance of these all his predecessors and contemporaries. 3 Of his dedicatory offerings there remain standing in my day not only the Palladium on the acropolis, — the one which has lost its gilding, — but also the temple surmounted by choregic tripods, in the precinct of Dionysus. For he was often victorious with choruses, and was never defeated. A story is told how, in one of his choral exhibitions, a house servant of his appeared in the costume of Dionysus, very fair to see, and very tall, the down of youth still upon his face. The Athenians were delighted at the sight, and applauded for a long time. At last Nicias rose and said he deemed it an unholy thing that one who had been acclaimed as a god should be a slave, and gave the youth his freedom.
[and if you need it, here’s help in using the map, including my own symbols & added information.]
[Nic. 3.4] 4 It is matter of record also how splendid and worthy of the god his lavish outlays at Delos were. The choirs which cities used to send thither to sing the praises of the god were wont to put in at the island in haphazard fashion. The throng of worshippers would meet them at the ship and bid them sing, not with the decorum due, but as they were hastily and tumultuously disembarking, and while they were actually donning their chaplets and vestments. 5 But when Nicias conducted the festal embassy, he landed first on the neighbouring island of Rheneia, with his choir, sacrificial victims, and other equipment. Then, with the bridge of boats which he had brought along with him from Athens, where it had been made to measure and signally adorned with gildings and dyed stuffs and garlands and tapestries, he spanned during the night the strait between Rheneia and Delos, which is not wide. At break of day he led his festal procession in honour of the god, and his choir arrayed in lavish splendour and singing as it marched, across the bridge to land. 6 After the sacrifices and the choral contests and the banquets were over, he erected the famous bronze palm-tree as a thank offering to the god, and consecrated to his service a tract of land which he bought at the price of ten thousand drachmas, the revenues from which the Delians were to expend in sacrificial banquets, at which many blessings should be invoked upon Nicias from gods. This stipulation he actually had graven on the stone which he left in Delos to be as it were the sentry over his benefaction. The palm-tree, however, was torn away by the wind and fell against the colossal statue of the god which the Naxians erected, and overturned it.
[Nic. 4.1] 4 1 In this course it is clear that there was much ostentatious publicity, looking towards increase of reputation and gratification of ambition; and yet, to judge from the rest of the man’s bent and character, one might feel sure that such means of winning the favour and control of the people were rather a corollary to his reverent piety. For he was one of those who are excessively terrified at heavenly portents, and was “addicted to divination,” as Thucydides says. 2 And in one of the dialogues of Pasiphon it is recorded that he sacrificed every day to the gods, and that he kept a diviner at his house, ostensibly for the constant enquiries which he made about public affairs, whereas most of his enquiries were really made about his own private matters, and especially about his silver mines; for he had large interests in the mining district of Laurium, and they were exceedingly profitable, although worked at great risks. He maintained a multitude of slaves in these mines, and the most of his substance was in silver. 3 For this reason he had a large retinue of people who wanted his money, and who got it too; for he gave to those who could work him harm no less than to those who deserved his favours, and in general his cowardice was a source of revenue to the base, as his liberality was to the good.
[Nic. 4.4] Witness to this can be had from the comic poets. 4 Telecleides composed the following verses on a certain public informer: —
[Nic. 4.4b] “So then Charicles gave a mina that he might not tell of him
How he was his mother’s first-born, — and her purse-born child at that.
[Nic. 4.4c] Minas four he got from Nicias, son of rich Niceratus;
But the reason why he gave them, though I know it very well,
I’ll not tell; the man’s my friend, and I think him wise and true.”
[Nic. 4.5] 5 And the personage who is held up to ridicule by Eupolis, in his “Maricas,” fetches in a sort of lazy pauper, and says: —
[Nic. 4.5b] (Maricas)”How long a time now since you were with Nicias?”
[Nic. 4.5c] (Pauper)”I have not seen him, — saving just now on the Square.”
[Nic. 4.5d] (Maricas)”The man admits he actually did see Nicias!
[Nic. 4.5e] Yet what possessed him thus to see him if he was not treacherous?”
[Nic. 4.5f] (Chorus?) “Ye heard, ye heard, my comrades, O!
[Nic. 4.5g] Our Nicias was taken in the very act!”
[Nic. 4.5h] (Pauper)”What! you? O crazy-witted folk!
[Nic. 4.5i] You catch a man so good in sin of any sort?”
[Nic. 4.6] 6 And the Cleon of Aristophanes blusteringly says: —
“I’ll bellow down the orators, and Nicias I’ll rattle.”
[Nic. 4.6b] And Phrynichus plainly hints at his lack of courage and his panic-stricken air in these verses: —
[Nic. 4.6c] “He was a right good citizen, and I know it well;
He wouldn’t cringe and creep as Nicias always does.”
[Nic. 5.1] 5 1 Since he was disposed to be thus cautious of public informers, he would neither dine with a fellow citizen, nor indulge in general interchange of views or familiar social intercourse; indeed, he had no leisure for such pastimes, but when he was general, he remained at the War Department till night, and when he was councillor, he was first to reach and last to leave the council. And even if he had no public business to transact, he was inaccessible and hard to come at, keeping close at home with his doors bolted. 2 His friends used to accost those who were in waiting at his door and beg them to be indulgent with Nicias, for he was even then engaged upon sundry urgent matters of public business.
[Nic. 5.3] The man who most aided him in playing this rôle, and helped him to assume his costume of pompous dignity, was Hiero. He had been reared in the household of Nicias, and thoroughly instructed by him in letters and literature. He pretended to be the son of Dionysius, surnamed Chalcus, whose poems are indeed extant, and who, as leader of the colonizing expedition to Italy, founded Thurii. 3 This Hiero it was who managed for Nicias his secret dealings with the seers, and who was forever putting forth among the people moving tales about the life of severe hardships which his patron led for the sake of the city. “Why!” said he, “even when he takes his bath and when he eats his dinner, some public business or other is sure to confront him; he neglects his private interests in his anxiety for the common good, and scarcely gets to sleep till others wake. 4 That’s the reason why he is physically all run down, and is not affable or pleasant to his friends, nay, he has actually lost these too, in addition to his substance, and all in the service of the city. Other public men not only win friends but enrich themselves through their influence as public speakers, and then fare sumptuously, and make a plaything of the service of the city.” In point of fact, such was the life of Nicias that he could say of himself what Agamemnon did: —
[Nic. 5.3b] “Sooth, as master of my life
My pomp I have, and to the populace I’m a slave.”
[Nic. 6.1] 6 1 He saw that the people, upon occasion, served their own turn with experienced men of eloquence or surpassing ability, but ever looked with suspicious and cautious eyes upon such powers, and tried to abate the pride and reputation to which they gave rise. This was manifest in their fining Pericles, and ostracising Damon, and discrediting, as most of them did, Antiphon the Rhamnusian, and finally, above all, in the fate of Paches, the captor of Lesbos, 2 who, while he was giving the official account of his generalship, drew his sword in the very court-room and slew himself. Nicias therefore tried to evade commands which were likely to be laborious and long, and whenever he did serve as general made safety his chief aim, and so was successful for the most part, as was natural. He did not, however, ascribe his achievements to any wisdom or ability or valour of his own, but rather credited them to fortune, and took modest refuge in the divine ordering of events, relinquishing thereby part of his reputation through fear of envy.
[Nic. 6.3] 3 Events bore witness to his wisdom, for in the many great reverses which the city suffered at that period he had absolutely no share. It was under the leadership of Calliades and Xenophon that his countrymen met defeat at the hands of the Chalcidians in Thrace; the Aetolian disaster occurred when Demosthenes was in command; Hippocrates was general when a thousand citizens were sacrificed at Delium; and for the plague Pericles incurred the most blame, because he shut up the throng from the country in the city on account of the war, and the plague was the result of their change of abode and their unwonted manner of living. 4 For all these things Nicias was free from blame, while as general he captured Cythera, an island favourably situated for the command of Laconia and inhabited by Lacedaemonians; he captured also many places in Thrace which had revolted, and brought them back to their allegiance; having shut up the Megarians in their city he straightway seized the island of Minoa, and shortly after, from this base of operations, got possession of Nisaea; he also made a descent upon the territory of Corinth, defeated the Corinthians in battle and slew many of them, including Lycophron their general.
[Nic. 6.5] 5 Here it befell him, when his dead were taken up for burial, that two of his men were left unnoticed on the field. As soon as he was made aware of this, he halted his armament and sent a herald back to the enemy asking leave to take up his dead. And yet by usage and unwritten law the side which secured the right to take up its dead by a truce, was thought to renounce all claims to victory, and for those who so obtained this right, the erection of a trophy of victory was unlawful, since they are victors who possess the field; but petitioners do not possess the field, since they cannot take what they want. 6 Notwithstanding this, Nicias endured rather to abandon the honour and reputation of his victory than to leave unburied two of his fellow citizens.
[Nic. 6.5b] He also ravaged the coasts of Laconia, routed the Lacedaemonians who opposed him, captured Thyrea, which the Aeginetans held, and took his prisoners off alive to Athens.
[Nic. 7.1] 7 1 After Demosthenes had fortified Pylos, the Peloponnesians came up against it by land and sea, a battle was fought, and about four hundred Spartans were shut off on the island of Sphacteria. Then the Athenians considered that their capture would be a great achievement, as was true. But the siege was difficult and toilsome, since the region afforded little fresh water. Even in summer the shipping of the necessary supplies round Peloponnesus was a long and expensive process, while in winter it was sure to be perilous if not altogether impossible. The Athenians were therefore in bad humour, and repented them of having repulsed an embassy of the Lacedaemonians which had come to treat with them for a truce and peace. 2 They had repulsed it because Cleon, chiefly on account of Nicias, was opposed to it. For he hated Nicias, and when he saw him zealously coöperating with the Lacedaemonians, persuaded the people to reject the truce. So when the siege grew longer and longer, and they learned that their forces were in terrible straits, they were angry with Cleon.
[Nic. 7.3] 3 He, however, laid all the blame on Nicias, and denounced him, saying that it was through cowardice and weakness that he was letting the men on the island slip through his hands, whereas, had he himself been general instead of Nicias, they would not have held out so long. Thereupon it occurred to the Athenians to say: “It’s not too late! Why don’t you sail yourself and fetch the men?” Nicias too rose in the assembly and resigned his command of the expedition to Pylos in favour of Cleon, bidding him take as large a force as he wished, and not to vent his boldness in mere words which brought no peril with them, but to perform some deed for the city which would be worth its notice. 4 At first Cleon tried to draw back, confused by the unexpectedness of this offer; but the Athenians kept up the same cries of encouragement, and Nicias kept taunting him, until, his ambition excited and on fire, he undertook the command, and, besides, declared in so many words that within twenty days after sailing he would either slay the men on the island or bring them alive to Athens. The Athenians were moved to hearty laughter at this rather than to belief in it, for they were already in the way of treating his mad vanity as a joke, and a pleasant one too.
[Nic. 7.5] 5 It is said, for instance, that once when the assembly was in session, the people sat out on the Pnyx a long while waiting for him to address them, and that late in the day he came in all garlanded for dinner and asked them to adjourn the assembly to the morrow. “I’m busy to day,” he said, “I’m going to entertain some guests, and have already sacrificed to the gods.” The Athenians burst out laughing, then rose up and dissolved the assembly.
[Nic. 8.1] 8 1 However, this time he had good fortune, served as general most successfully along with Demosthenes, and within the time which he had specified brought home as prisoners of war, their arms surrendered, all the Spartans on Sphacteria who had not fallen in battle. This success of Cleon’s brought great discredit on Nicias. He was thought not merely to have cast away his shield, but to have done something far more disgraceful and base in voluntarily throwing up his command out of cowardice, and in abandoning to his enemy the opportunity so great a success, — actually voting himself out of office. 2 For this, Aristophanes again scoffs at him in his “Birds,” in words like these: —
[Nic. 8.1b] “And lo! by Zeus! we can no longer doze about, —
We have no time, — nor shilly-shally-niciasize;”
and in his “Farmers,” where he writes: —
“I want to go a-farming.”
[Nic. 8.1c] “Pray who hinders you?”
[Nic. 8.1d] “You people do. Come! Let me give a thousand drachms
If you’ll release me from my offices.”
[Nic. 8.1e] “ ‘Tis done!
[Nic. 8.1f] Yours make two thousand, counting those that Nicias gave.”
[Nic. 8.3] 3 And besides, he wrought no little harm to the city in allowing Cleon to have such an access of reputation and influence that he launched out into offensive pride and ungovernable boldness and inflicted many mischiefs on the city, the bitter fruits of which he himself reaped most abundantly. Worst of all, Cleon stripped the bema of its decorum, setting the fashion of yelling when he harangued the people, of throwing back his robe, slapping his thigh, and running about while speaking. He thus imbued the managers of the city’s policies with that levity and contempt for propriety which soon after confounded the whole state.
[Nic. 9.1] 9 1 Just about that time Alcibiades was beginning to be a power at Athens. For a popular leader he was not so unmixed an evil as Cleon. The soil of Egypt, it is said, by reason of its very excellence, produces alike
[Nic. 9.1b] “Drugs of which many are good, intermixed, but many are deadly.”
[Nic. 9.2] In like manner the nature of Alcibiades, setting as it did with full and strong currents towards both good and evil, furnished cause and beginning for serious innovations. 2 And so it came to pass that even after Nicias was rid of Cleon, he did not get opportunity to lull the city into perfect rest and calm, but, when he had actually set the state fairly in the path of safety, was hurled from it by an impetuous onset of Alcibiades’ ambition, and plunged again into war.
[Nic. 9.3] This was the way it came about. The men most hostile to the peace of Hellas were Cleon and Brasidas. Of these, war covered up the baseness of the one and adorned the excellence of the other; that is to say, it gave the one opportunities for great iniquities, the other for great achievements. 3 After these men had both fallen in one and the same battle before Amphipolis, Nicias found at once that the Spartans had long been eager for peace, and that the Athenians were no longer in good heart for the war; that both were, so to speak, unstrung, and glad to let their arms drop to their sides. He therefore strove to unite the two cities in friendship, and to free the rest of the Hellenes from ills, as well as to give himself a season of rest, and so to make secure for all coming time the name which he had for success. 4 The men who were well-to do, and the elderly men, and most of the farmers, he found inclined to peace from the first; and after he had talked privately with many of the rest, taught them his views, and blunted the edge of their desire for war, then he at once held out hopes to the Spartans, and urgently invited them to seek for peace. They had confidence in him, not only because of his usual fairness towards them, but especially because he had shown kind attentions to those of their men who had been captured at Pylos and kept in prison at Athens, had treated them humanely, and so eased their misfortune. 5 The two parties had before this made a sort of stay of mutual hostilities for a year, and during this time they had held conferences with one another, and tasted again the sweets of security and leisure and intercourse with friends at home and abroad, so that they yearned for that old life which was undefiled by war, and listened gladly when choirs sang such strains as
[Nic. 9.3b] “Let my spear lie unused for the spider to cover with webs”
[Nic. 9.6] and gladly called to mind the saying, “In peace the sleeper is waked not by the trumpet, but by the cock.” 6 Accordingly, they heaped abuse on those who said that the war was fated to last thrice nine years, and then, in this spirit, debated the whole issue, and made peace. Most men held it to be a manifest release from ills, and Nicias was in every mouth. They said he was a man beloved of God, and that Heaven had bestowed on him, for his reverent piety, the privilege of giving his name to the greatest and fairest of blessings. 7 They really thought that the peace was the work of Nicias, as the war had been that of Pericles. The one, on slight occasion, was thought to have plunged the Hellenes into great calamities; the other had persuaded them to forget the greatest injuries and become friends. Therefore, to this day, men call that peace “The Peace of Nicias.”
[Nic. 10.1] 10 1 The articles of peace required that the strongholds and cities and prisoners of war which each party had taken from the other should be restored, and since that party was to make restoration first on whom the lot fell, the lot was secretly bought up by Nicias, so that the Lacedaemonians were the first to make restoration. 2 This is the testimony of Theophrastus. But when the Corinthians and Boeotians, who were vexed at the course things were taking, seemed likely, by their accusations and complaints, to revive the war, Nicias persuaded the Athenians and Lacedaemonians to make the general peace secure by the mighty bond of a mutual alliance, whereby they should become more formidable to all seceders and better assured of each other.
[Nic. 10.3] 3 Such being the course of events, Alcibiades, who was naturally indisposed to be quiet, and who was incensed at the Lacedaemonians because they scornfully ignored him in their fond attachment to Nicias, promptly opposed and obstructed the general peace. At the outset he made no headway; but a little while after, seeing that the Athenians were not so well pleased as before with the Lacedaemonians, but thought they had wronged them in making a separate alliance with the Boeotians, and in not restoring Panactum with its walls intact, nor Amphipolis at all, he laid great stress on these grounds of complaint, and tried to incense the people over each one of them. 4 Finally he managed to have an embassy sent from Argos to Athens, and tried to effect a separate alliance between these two cities. Ambassadors came at once from Sparta with full powers to treat all issues, and at their preliminary audience with the council were declared by that body to come with nothing but just proposals. But Alcibiades was afraid they would bring the assembly over to their views with the same arguments which had won the council. He therefore circumvented them by deceitfully swearing that he would coöperate with them fully in the assembly if they would only not claim nor even admit that they had come with full powers to treat all issues; for thus, he declared, they would most surely attain their desires. 5 After they were persuaded by him, and had put themselves out of the guiding hands of Nicias and into his, he introduced them to the assembly, and asked them first whether they had come with full powers to treat all issues. On their saying “No” to this, he surprised them by changing front and calling on the members of the council who were present to bear witness to what they had said before that body. He then urged the people not to follow, much less trust, men who were so manifestly liars, and who said now “Yes” and now “No” to the same question. 6 The ambassadors were overwhelmed with confusion, naturally, and Nicias was unable to say a word, — struck dumb with amazement and anguish. Therefore the people were at once eager to call in the Argive embassy and make the alliance it desired, but there came a slight earthquake shock just then, luckily for Nicias, and the assembly was dissolved. On the following day, when the people had assembled again, by dint of great effort and much talking Nicias succeeded, with difficulty, in persuading them to refrain from the proposed arrangement with Argos, and to send him on an embassy to the Lacedaemonians, assuring them that everything would thus turn out well.
[Nic. 10.7] 7 But when he came to Sparta, though in other ways he was honoured by them as a true man and one who had been zealous in their behalf, still, he accomplished nothing that he purposed, but was beaten by the party there which had Boeotian sympathies, and so came back home, not merely with loss of reputation and under harsh abuse, but actually in bodily fear of the Athenians. They were vexed and indignant because they had been persuaded by him to restore so many eminent prisoners of war; for the men who had been brought to the city from Pylos belonged to the leading families of Sparta, and the most influential men there were their friends and kinsmen. 8 However, the Athenians took no very harsh measures in their anger against Nicias, but elected Alcibiades general, made an alliance with the Mantineans and Eleans, who had seceded from the Lacedaemonians, as well as with the Argives, sent freebooters to Pylos to ravage Laconia, and thus plunged again into war.
[Nic. 11.1] 11 At last the feud between Nicias and Alcibiades became so intense that recourse was had to the process of ostracism. This the people used to institute from time to time when they wished to remove for ten years, by the ostrakon ballot, any one man who was an object of suspicion generally because of his great reputation, or of jealousy because of his great wealth. Both the rivals were thus involved in much confusion and peril, since one or the other must in any event succumb to the ostracism. 2 In the case of Alcibiades, men loathed his manner of life and dreaded his boldness, as will be shown more at length in his biography; and in the case of Nicias, his wealth made him an object of jealousy. Above all else, his way of life, which was not genial nor popular but unsocial and aristocratic, seemed alien and foreign: and since he often opposed the people’s desires and tried to force them against their wishes into the way of their advantage, he was burdensome to them. 3 To tell the simple truth, it was a struggle between the young men who wanted war and the elderly men who wanted peace; one party proposed to ostracise Nicias, the other Alcibiades.
[Nic. 11.1b] “But in a time of sedition, the base man too is in honour,”
[Nic. 11.4] and so in this case also the people divided into two factions, and thereby made room for the most aggressive and mischievous men. Among these was Hyperbolus of the deme Perithoedae, a man whose boldness was not due to any influence that he possessed, but who came to influence by virtue of his boldness, and became, by reason of the very credit which he had in the city, a discredit to the city. 4 This fellow at that time thought himself beyond the reach of ostracism, since, indeed, he was a likelier candidate for the stocks; but he expected that when one of the rivals had been banished he might himself become a match for the one who was left, and so it was plain that he was pleased at their feud, and that he was inciting the people against both of them. Accordingly, when Nicias and Alcibiades became aware of his baseness, they took secret counsel with one another, united and harmonized their factions, and carried the day, so that neither of them was ostracised, but Hyperbolus instead.
[Nic. 11.5] 5 For the time being this delighted and amused the people, but afterwards they were vexed to think that the ordinance of ostracism had been degraded by its application to so unworthy a man. They thought that even chastisement had its dignity, or rather, they regarded the ostracism as a chastisement in the cases of Thucydides and Aristides and such men, but in the case of Hyperbolus as an honour, and as good ground for boasting on his part, since for his baseness he had met with the same fate as the best men. 6 And so Plato the comic poet somewhere said of him: —
[Nic. 11.6] “Indeed he suffered worthy fate for men of old
Albeit a fate too good for him and for his brands.
[Nic. 11.6b] For such as him the ostrakon was ne’er devised.”
[Nic. 11.6c] And in the end no one was ever ostracised after Hyperbolus, but he was the last, as Hippocrates of Cholargus, a kinsman of the famous tyrant Peisistratus, was the first to be so banished.
[Nic. 11.7] 7 Verily fortune is an uncertain thing, and incalculable. Had Nicias run the risk with Alcibiades of being ostracised, he had either carried the day, expelled his rival, and then dwelt safely in the city; or, defeated, he had himself gone forth from the city before his last misfortunes, and had preserved the reputation of being a most excellent general.
[Nic. 11.7b] I am well aware that Theophrastus says that Hyperbolus was ostracised when Phaeax, and not Nicias, was striving against Alcibiades, but most writers state the case as I have done.
Thayer’s Note: What follows may be very unclear to the reader not already familiar with the story of the Athenian expedition to Sicily: Plutarch is writing biography after all, not history; and told us right at the beginning, besides, that he would tiptoe around what had already been covered by Thucydides. So a coherent and nicely readable account of the expedition may be useful here; you’ll find one in F. M. Crawford, Rulers of the South, Vol. I, p, drawn from the primary sources (including this Life of Nicias).
[Nic. 12.1] 12 1 It was Nicias, then, who, when an embassy came from Egesta and Leontini seeking to persuade the Athenians to undertake an expedition against Sicily, opposed the measure, only to be defeated by the ambitious purposes of Alcibiades. Before the assembly had met at all, Alcibiades had already corrupted the multitude and got them into his power by means of his sanguine promises, so that the youth in their training-schools and the old men in their work-shops and lounging-places would sit in clusters drawing maps of Sicily, charts of the sea about it, and plans of the harbours and districts of the island which look towards Libya. 2 For they did not regard Sicily itself as the prize of the war, but rather as a mere base of operations, purposing therefrom to wage a contest with the Carthaginians and get possession of both Libya and of all the sea this side the Pillars of Heracles.
[Nic. 12.3] Since, therefore, their hearts were fixed on this, Nicias, in his opposition to them, had few men, and these of no influence, to contend on his side. For the well-to do citizens feared accusations of trying to escape their contributions for the support of the navy, and so, despite their better judgement, held their peace. 3 But Nicias did not faint nor grow weary. Even after the Athenians had actually voted for the war and elected him general first, and after him Alcibiades and Lamachus, in a second session of the assembly he rose and tried to divert them from their purpose by the most solemn adjurations, and at last accused Alcibiades of satisfying his own private greed and ambition in thus forcing the city into grievous perils beyond the seas. 4 Still, he made no headway, nay, he was held all the more essential to the enterprise because of the experience from which he spoke. There would be great security, his hearers thought, against the daring of Alcibiades and the roughness of Lamachus, if his well known caution were blended with their qualities. And so he succeeded only in confirming the previous vote. For Demostratus, the popular leader who was most active in spurring the Athenians on to the war, rose and declared that he would stop the mouth of Nicias from uttering vain excuses; so he introduced a decree to the effect that the generals have full and independent powers in counsel and in action, both at home and at the seat of war, and persuaded the people to vote it.
[Nic. 13.1] 13 1 And yet the priesthood also is said to have offered much opposition to the expedition. But Alcibiades had other diviners in his private service, and from sundry oracles reputed ancient he cited one saying that great fame would be won by the Athenians in Sicily. To his delight also certain envoys who had been sent to the shrine of Ammon came back with an oracle declaring that the Athenians would capture all the Syracusans; but utterances of opposite import the envoys concealed, for fear of using words of ill omen. 2 For no signs could deter the people from the expedition, were they never so obvious and clear, such as, for instance, the mutilation of the “Hermae.” These statues were all disfigured in a single night, except one, called the Hermes of Andocides, a dedication of the Aegeïd tribe, standing in front of what was at that time the house of Andocides. Then there was the affair of the altar of the Twelve Gods. An unknown man leaped upon it all of a sudden, bestrode it, and then mutilated himself with a stone.
[Nic. 13.3] 3 At Delphi, moreover, there stood a Palladium, made of gold and set upon a bronze palm tree, a dedication of the city of Athens from the spoils of her valour in the Persian war. Ravens alighted on this image and pecked it for many days together; they also bit off the fruit of the palm-tree, which was of gold, and cast it down to the ground. 4 The Athenians, it is true, said that this whole story was an invention of the Delphians, at the instigation of the Syracusans; but at any rate when a certain oracle bade them bring the priestess of Athena from Clazomenae, they sent and fetched the woman, and lo! her name was Peace. And this, as it seemed, was the advice which the divinity would give the city at that time, namely, to keep the peace.
[Nic. 13.5] 5 It was either because he feared such signs as these, or because, from mere human calculation, he was alarmed about the expedition, that the astrologer Meton, who had been given a certain station of command, pretended to be mad and set his house on fire. Some, however, tell the story in this way: Meton made no pretence of madness, but burned his house down in the night, and then came forward publicly in great dejection and begged his fellow citizens, in view of the great calamity which had befallen him, to release from the expedition his son, who was about to sail for Sicily in command of a trireme. 6 To Socrates the wise man also, his divine guide, making use of the customary tokens for his enlightenment, indicated plainly that the expedition would make for the ruin of the city. Socrates let this be known to his intimate friends, and the story had a wide circulation.
[Nic. 13.7] 7 Not a few also were somewhat disconcerted by the character of the days in the midst of which they dispatched their armament. The women were celebrating at that time the festival of Adonis, and in many places throughout the city little images of the god were laid our for burial, and funeral rites were held about them, with wailing cries of women, so that those who cared anything for such matters were distressed, and feared lest that powerful armament, with all the splendour and vigour which were so manifest in it, should speedily wither away and come to naught.
[Nic. 14.1] 14 1 Now, that Nicias should oppose the voting of the expedition, and should not be so buoyed up by vain hopes nor so crazed by the magnitude of his command as to change his real opinion, — this marked him as a man of honesty and discretion. But when he availed naught either in his efforts to divert the people from the war or in his desire to be relieved of his command, — the people as it were picking him up bodily and setting him over their forces as general, — 2 then it was no longer a time for the exceeding caution and hesitation which he displayed, gazing back homewards from his ship like a child, and many times resuming and dwelling on the thought that the people had not yielded to his reasonings, till he took the edge from the zeal of his colleagues in command and lost the fittest time for action. He ought rather at once to have engaged the enemy at close quarters and put fortune to the test in struggles for the mastery. 3 Instead of this, while Lamachus urged that they sail direct to Syracuse and give battle close to the city, and Alcibiades that they rob the Syracusans of their allied cities first and then proceed against them, Nicias proposed and urged in opposition that they make their way quietly by sea along the coasts of Sicily, circumnavigate the island, make a display of their troops and triremes, and then sail back of Athens, after having first culled out a small part of their force to give the Egestaeans a taste of succor. In this way he soon relaxed the resolution and depressed the spirits of his men.
[Nic. 14.4] 4 After a little while the Athenians summoned Alcibiades home to stand his trial, and then Nicias, who nominally had still a colleague in the command, but really wielded sole power, made no end of sitting idle, or cruising aimlessly about, or taking deliberate counsel, until the vigorous hopes of his men grew old and feeble, and the consternation and fear with which the first sight of his forces had filled his enemies slowly subsided.
[Nic. 14.5] 5 While Alcibiades was yet with the fleet, sixty ships sailed for Syracuse, of which fifty lay out in the offing, drawn up so as to command the harbour, while ten rowed in to reconnoitre. These made formal proclamation by voice of herald that the people of Leontini should return to their homes. They also captured a ship of the enemy with tablets on board in which the Syracusans had recorded lists of their citizens by tribes. These lists had been deposited at some distance from the city, in the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus, but had been sent for at that time with a view to determining and enrolling those who had come to military age. 6 Now when these had been captured by the Athenians and brought to their generals, and the number of names was seen, the soothsayers were in distress lest in this circumstance lie the fulfilment of what was predicted by the oracle which said: “The Athenians shall take all the Syracusans.” However, they say that it was in another circumstance altogether that this prophecy was fulfilled for the Athenians, namely, at the time when Callippus the Athenian slew Dion and got possession of Syracuse.
[Nic. 15.1] 15 1 A little while after this Alcibiades sailed away from Sicily, and then Nicias took the entire command. Lamachus was, it is true, a sturdy and honourable man, one who put forth his might without stint in battle, but so poor and petty that in every campaign where he served as general he would charge up to the Athenian people certain trifling moneys for his own clothes and boots. 2 Nicias, on the contrary, was a man of great dignity and importance, especially because of his wealth and reputation. It is said that once at the War Department, when his fellow commanders were deliberating on some matter of general moment, he bade Sophocles the poet state his opinion first, as being the senior general on the Board. Thereupon Sophocles said: “I am the oldest man, but you are the senior general.”
[Nic. 15.3] 3 So also in the present case he brought Lamachus under his orders, although more of a general than himself, and, always using his forces in a cautious and hesitating manner, he first gave the enemy courage by cruising around Sicily as far as possible from them, and then, by attacking the diminutive little city of Hybla, and going off without taking it, he won their utter contempt. 4 Finally, he went back to Catana without effecting anything at all except the overthrow of Hyccara, a barbarian fastness. From this place it is said that Laïs the courtesan was sold as a prisoner of war, being still a girl, and brought into Peloponnesus.
[Nic. 16.1] 16 1 The summer was now spent when Nicias learned that the Syracusans had plucked up courage and were going to take the initiative and come out against him. Their horsemen already had the insolence to ride up to the Athenian camp and ask its occupants whether they had come to share the homes of the Catanians or to restore the Leontines to their old homes. At last, therefore, and reluctantly, Nicias set out to sail against Syracuse. 2 Wishing to establish his forces there deliberately and without fear of interruption from the enemy, he secretly sent on a man of Catana with a message for the Syracusans: if they wished to find the camp and equipment of the Athenians abandoned of defenders, they must come in full force to Catana on a given day, for that the friends of the Syracusans in the city, where the Athenians spent most of their time, had determined, on perceiving their approach, to seize the gates and set fire to the Athenian fleet; the conspirators were already many and awaited their coming.
[Nic. 16.3] 3 This was the best generalship that Nicias displayed in Sicily. He brought his enemy out of their city in full force, thereby almost emptying it of defenders, while he himself put out to sea from Catana, got control of the enemy’s harbours, and seized a spot for his camp where he was confident that he would suffer least injury from that arm of the service in which he was inferior, the cavalry, and meet no hindrance in fighting with that arm whereon he most relied. 4 When the Syracusans hurried back from Catana and drew up in order of battle before their own city, Nicias led his Athenians swiftly against them and carried the day. He did not slay many of the enemy, it is true, for their horsemen prevented his pursuit; he had to content himself with cutting to pieces and destroying the bridges over the river, and thus gave Hermocrates occasion to say, as he sought to encourage the Syracusans, that Nicias was ridiculous in manoeuvring so as not to give battle, as though it was not for battle that he had crossed the seas. 5 However, he did infuse fear and mighty consternation into the Syracusans, so that in place of their fifteen generals then in office they elected three others, to whom the people pledged themselves under oath that they would surely suffer them to command with full and independent powers.
[Nic. 16.6] 6 The Olympieum was hard by, and the Athenians set out to seize it, inasmuch as it contained many offerings of gold and silver. But Nicias purposely delayed operations until it was too late, and allowed a garrison from Syracuse to enter in, because he thought that if his soldiers plundered the temple’s treasures the commonwealth would get no advantage from it, and he himself would incur the blame for the sacrilege. 7 Of his victory, which was so noised about, he made no use whatever, but after a few days had elapsed withdrew again to Naxos, and there spent the winter, making large outlays on his vast armament, but effecting little in his negotiations with the few Sicels who thought of coming over to his side. The Syracusans therefore plucked up courage again, marched out to Catana, ravaged the fields, and burnt what had been the Athenian camp.
[Nic. 16.8] 8 These things all men laid to the charge of Nicias, since, as they said, by his excessive calculation and hesitation and caution he let the proper time for action go by for ever. When he was once in action no one could find fault with the man, for after he had set out to do a thing he was vigorous and effective; but in venturing out to do it he was hesitating and timid.
[Nic. 17.1] 17 1 At any rate, when he moved his armament back to Syracuse, he showed such generalship, and made his approach with such speed and safety, that he put in at Thapsus with his fleet and landed his men unobserved, seized Epipolae before the enemy could prevent, defeated the picked companies which came to its rescue, killing three hundred men, and even routed the cavalry of the enemy, which was thought to be invincible.
[Nic. 17.2] 2 But what most of all filled the Sicilians with terror and the Hellenes with incredulity was that in a short time he carried a wall around Syracuse, a city fully as large as Athens, although the unevenness of the territory about it, its proximity to the sea and its adjacent marshes, made the task of surrounding it with such a wall very difficult. 3 But he came within an ace of bringing this great task to completion, — a man who had not even sound health for such concerns, but was sick of a disease in the kidneys. To this it is only fair to ascribe the fact that part of the work was unfinished. I can but admire the watchful care of the general and the noble valour of his soldiers in what they did accomplish. 4 Euripides, after their defeat and destruction, composed an epitaph for them, in which he said: —
[Nic. 17.2b] “These men at Syracuse eight times were triumphant as victors;
Heroes they were while the gods favoured both causes alike.”
[Nic. 17.5] 5 And not eight times only, nay, more than that you will find that the Syracusans were beaten by them, until the gods, as the poet says, or fortune, became hostile to the Athenians at the very pinnacle of their power.
[Nic. 18.1] 18 1 Now in most actions Nicias took part, despite his bodily infirmity. But once, when his weakness was extreme, he was lying in bed within the walls, attended by a very few servants, while Lamachus with the soldiery was fighting the Syracusans. These were trying to run a wall from their city out to that which the Athenians were building, to intersect it and prevent its completion. 2 The Athenians prevailed, and hurried off in pursuit with more or less disorder, so that Lamachus was isolated, and then had to face some Syracusan horsemen who made an onset upon him. Foremost of these was Callicrates, a man skilled in war and of a high courage. Lamachus accepted his challenge to single combat, fought him, got a mortal blow from him, but gave him back the like, and fell and died along with him. 3 The Syracusans got possession of the body of Lamachus, with its armour, and carried it off. Then they made a dash upon the Athenian walls where Nicias was, with none to succour him. He nevertheless, necessity compelling him, rose from his bed, saw his peril, and ordered his attendants to bring fire and set it to all the timbers that lay scattered in front of the walls for the construction of siege-engines, and to the engines themselves. This brought the Syracusans to a halt, and saved Nicias as well as the walls and stores of the Athenians. For when the Syracusans saw a great flame rising between them and the walls, they withdrew.
[Nic. 18.4] 4 Thus it came to pass that Nicias was left sole general; but he was in great hopes. Cities were inclining to take his side, and ships full of grain came to his camp from every quarter. Everybody hastens to join a successful cause. Besides, sundry proposals for a treaty were already coming to him from those Syracusans who despaired of their city. 5 At this time, too, Gylippus, who was sailing from Sparta to their aid, when he heard on his voyage how they were walled up and in sore distress, held on his way, it is true, but with the belief that Sicily was as good as taken, and that he could only save the cities of the Italian Greeks, if haply even that. For the opinion gained ground and strength that the Athenians were all powerful, and had a general who was invincible by reason of his judgement and good fortune.
[Nic. 18.6] 6 And Nicias himself, contrary to his nature, was straightway so emboldened by the present momentum of his good fortune, and, most of all, by the secret messengers sent to him from the Syracusans, was so fixed in his belief that the city was just on the point of surrendering conditionally, that he made no sort of account of Gylippus at his approach. He did not even set an adequate watch against him. Wherefore, finding himself completely overlooked and despised, the man sailed stealthily through the straits, made a landing at the farthest point from Syracuse, and collected a large force, the Syracusans not being so much as aware of his presence, nor even expecting him. 7 On the contrary, they had actually called an assembly to discuss the agreements to be made with Nicias, and some were already on their way to it, thinking that the terms of peace should be made before their city was completely walled up. For that part of the work which remained to be done was quite small, and all the material required for it lay strewn along the line.
[Nic. 19.1] 19 1 But in this nick of time and crisis of their peril Gongylus came to them from Corinth with a single trireme. All flocking to meet him, as was natural, he told them that Gylippus would come speedily, and the other ships of war were sailing to their aid. 2 Ere yet they could put implicit faith in what Gongylus told them, there came a messenger from Gylippus bidding them come out to meet him. Then they plucked up heart and donned their arms. No sooner had Gylippus come up than he led his men in battle array against the Athenians. But when Nicias arrayed his men too over against him, Gylippus halted under arms, and sent a herald with the message that he offered the Athenians safe conduct if they would depart from Sicily.
[Nic. 19.3] 3 Nicias deigned no answer to this; but some of his soldiers mocked, and asked the herald if the presence of a single Spartan cloak and staff had made the prospects of the Syracusans on a sudden so secure that they could afford to deride the Athenians, who had restored to the Lacedaemonians, out of prison and fetters, three hundred men far sturdier and Gylippus, and longer haired. 4 Timaeus says that the Sicilians also made no account of Gylippus, later on, indeed, because they learned to know his base greed and penuriousness; but as soon as they set eyes upon him they jeered at his cloak and his long hair. Then, however, Timaeus himself says that as soon as Gylippus showed himself, for all the world like an owl among birds, many flocked to him, with ready offers of military service. This latter statement has more truth in it than his first, for in the staff and cloak of Gylippus men beheld the symbols of the majesty of Sparta, and rallied round them. 5 Moreover, that the whole achievement of deliverance was his, is the testimony not only of Thucydides, but also of Philistus, who was a Syracusan, and an eye-witness of the events thereof.
[Nic. 19.6] Well, then, in the first battle the Athenians were victors and slew some few of the Syracusans, and also Gongylus the Corinthian; but on the day following Gylippus showed what a great thing experience is. Although he had the same infantry and the same cavalry and the same localities to deal with, he did not do it in the same way as before, but changed his tactics, and thereby conquered the Athenians. 6 And as they fled to their camp, he halted his Syracusans in their pursuit, and with the very stones and timbers which his enemies had brought up for their own use, he carried on the cross wall until it intersected the besiegers’ wall of enclosure, so that their superior strength in the field really availed them naught.
[Nic. 19.7] After this the Syracusans plucked up heart and went to manning their ships, while their own horsemen and those of their allies would ride above and cut off many of their besiegers. 7 Gylippus also went out in person to the cities of Sicily and roused up and united them all into vigorous and obedient concert with him. Nicias therefore fell back again upon those views of the undertaking which he had held at the outset, and, fully aware of the reversal which it had suffered, became dejected, and wrote a despatch to the Athenians urging them to send out another armament, or else to recall the one already in Sicily, begging them also in any case to relieve him of his command because of his disease.
[Nic. 20.1] 20 1 Even before this the Athenians had made preparations to send another force to Sicily, but the leading men among them felt some jealousy of the preliminary good fortune of Nicias, and so had induced many delays. Now, however, they were all eagerness to send aid. It was therefore determined that Demosthenes should sail with a large armament in the spring, and while it was yet winter Eurymedon preceded him with a smaller fleet, bringing money, and announcing the selection of colleagues for Nicias from among the members of the expedition there, — to wit, Euthydemus and Menander.
[Nic. 20.2] 2 But in the meantime Nicias was suddenly attacked by land and sea. With his fleet, though vanquished at first, he yet succeeded in repulsing the enemy, and sank many of their ships; but he was not prompt enough in sending aid to his garrison at Plemmyrium, and so Gylippus, who had fallen upon it suddenly, captured it. Large naval stores and moneys were in deposit there, all of which Gylippus secured, besides killing many men and taking many prisoners. 3 What was most important of all, he robbed Nicias of his easy importation of supplies. These had been safely and speedily brought in past Plemmyrium as long as the Athenians held that post; but now that they had been driven from it, the process was a difficult one, and involved fighting with the enemy who lay at anchor there. And besides all this, the Syracusans felt that their fleet had been defeated, not through any superior strength in their enemy, but by reason of their own disorderly pursuit of that enemy. Accordingly, they were making more vigorous preparations to try the issue again.
[Nic. 20.4] 4 But Nicias did not want a sea fight. He said it would be great folly, when so large an armament was sailing to their aid and hurrying up fresh troops under Demosthenes, to fight the issue out with inferior forces, and those wretchedly supplied. Menander and Euthydemus, however, who had just been appointed to their offices, were moved by an ambitious rivalry with both the other generals; they longed to anticipate Demosthenes in some brilliant exploit, and to eclipse Nicias. 5 They therefore made much of their city’s reputation. This, they declared again and again, would be altogether ruined and dissipated if they should show fear when the Syracusans sailed out to attack them; and so they forced a decision to give battle by sea. But they were simply out-manoeuvred by Ariston, the Corinthian captain, in the matter of the noon-day meal, as Thucydides relates, and then worsted in action, with the loss of many men. And so a great despair encompassed Nicias; he had met with disaster while in sole command, and was now again brought to grief by his colleagues.
[Nic. 21.1] 21 1 But at this juncture Demosthenes hove in sight off the harbours, most resplendent in his array, and most terrifying to the enemy. He brought five thousand hoplites on seventy-three ships of war, besides javelineers and archers and slingers to no less a number than three thousand. What with the gleam of his arms and the insignia of his triremes and the multitude of his coxwains and pipers, he made a spectacular display, and one which smote the enemy with dismay. 2 Again, then, as was natural, fear reigned among the Syracusans. They saw before them no final release from their perils, but only useless toils and vain self-destruction.
[Nic. 21.3] But the joy of Nicias at the presence of this fresh force was not long lived. Nay, at the very first council of war, when Demosthenes urged an immediate attack upon the enemy, a settlement of the whole struggle by the speediest hazard, and either the capture of Syracuse or else a return home, he was in fearful amaze at such aggressive daring, and begged that nothing be done rashly or foolishly. 3 Delay, he said, was sure to work against the enemy; they no longer had money to spend, and their allies would not longer stand by them; let them only be really distressed by the straits they were in, and they would soon come to him again for terms, as they had done before. For not a few of the men of Syracuse were in secret communication with Nicias. They urged him to bide his time, on the ground that even now they were worn out by the war and weary of Gylippus, and that if their necessities should but increase a little, they would give over altogether. 4 At some of these matters Nicias could only hint darkly, of others he was unwilling to speak in public, and so he made the generals think he was cowardly. It was the same old story over again with him, they would say, — delays, postponements, and hairsplitting distinctions; he had already forfeited the golden moment by not attacking the enemy at once, but rather going stale and winning their contempt. So they sided with Demosthenes, and Nicias, with great reluctance, was forced to yield.
[Nic. 21.5] 5 Therefore, Demosthenes, with the infantry, made a night attack upon Epipolae. He took some of the enemy by surprise, and slew them; others, who tried to make a stand, he routed. Victorious, he did not halt, but pressed on farther, until he fell in with the Boeotians. These were the first of the enemy to form in battle array, and dashing upon the Athenians with spears at rest and with loud shouts, they repulsed them and slew many of them there. 6 Through the whole army of attack there was at once panic and confusion. The part that was still pressing on victoriously was presently choked up with the part that fled, and the part that was yet coming up to the attack was beaten back by the panic-stricken and fell foul of itself, supposing that the fugitives were pursuers, and treating friends as foes. 7 Their huddling together in fear and ignorance, and the deceitfulness of their vision, plunged the Athenians into terrible perplexities and disasters. For the night was one which afforded neither absolute darkness nor a steady light. The moon was low on the horizon, and was partially obscured by the numerous armed figures moving to and fro in her light, and so she naturally made even friends mutually suspicious through fear of foes, by not distinguishing their forms clearly. 8 Besides, it somehow happened that the Athenians had the moon at their backs, so that they cast their shadows on their own men in front of them, and thus obscured their number and the brilliancy of their weapons; while in the case of the enemy, the reflection of the moon upon their shields made them seem far more numerous than they really were, and more resplendent to the eye.
[Nic. 21.9] 9 Finally, when the Athenians gave ground, the enemy attacked them on all sides and put them to flight. Some of them died at the hands of their pursuers, others by one another’s hands, and others still by plunging down the cliffs. The scattered and wandering fugitives, when day came, were overtaken and cut to pieces by the enemy’s horsemen. The dead amounted in all to two thousand; and of the survivors, few saved their armour with their lives.
[Nic. 22.1] 22 1 Nicias, accordingly, was overcome by this disaster, though it did not take him wholly by surprise, and he accused Demosthenes of rashness. Demosthenes defended himself on this score, and then urged that they sail away as soon as they could. No other force would come to their aid, he declared, 2 and with the one they had they could not finally master the enemy, since, even if they were victorious in battle, they would be forced to change their base and abandon their present position; this was always, as they heard, a grievous and unwholesome spot for encampment, and now particularly, as they saw, it was actual deadly on account of the season of the year. For it was the beginning of autumn; many were sick already, and all were in low spirits.
[Nic. 22.3] But Nicias could not bear to hear of sailing off in flight, not because he had no fear of the Syracusans, but because he was more afraid of the Athenians with their prosecutions and denunciations. 3 Nothing dreadful, he would say, was to be expected where they were, and even if the worst should come, he chose rather to die at the hands of his enemies than at the hands of his fellow citizens. In this he was not like-minded with Leon of Byzantium, who, at a later time, said to his fellow citizens: “I would rather be put to death by you than with you.” However, regarding the exact spot to which they should remove their camp, Nicias said they would deliberate at their leisure. 4 Thereupon Demosthenes, who had not been successful in his previous plan, ceased trying to carry his point, and so led the rest of the generals to believe that Nicias must have confident expectations from his correspondents in the city in making such a sturdy fight against the proposed retreat; they therefore sided with him. However, a fresh army came to the aid of the Syracusans, and sickness kept spreading among the Athenians, so that at last Nicias also decided in favour of a change of base, and ordered the soldiers to hold themselves in readiness to sail away.
[Nic. 23.1] 23 1 But just as everything was prepared for this and none of the enemy were on the watch, since they did not expect the move at all, there came an eclipse of the moon by night. This was a great terror to Nicias and all those who were ignorant or superstitious enough to quake at such a sight. The obscuration of the sun towards the end of the month was already understood, even by the common folk, as caused somehow or other by the moon; 2 but what it was that the moon encountered, and how, being at the full, she should on a sudden lose her light and emit all sorts of colours, this was no easy thing to comprehend. Men thought it uncanny, — a sign sent from God in advance of divers great calamities.
[Nic. 23.3] The first man to put in writing the clearest and boldest of all doctrines about the changing phases of the moon was Anaxagoras. But he was no ancient authority, nor was his doctrine in high repute. It was still under seal of secrecy, and made its way slowly among a few only, who received it with a certain caution rather than with implicit confidence. 3 Men could not abide the natural philosophers and “visionaries,” as they were then called, for that they reduced the divine agency down to irrational causes, blind forces, and necessary incidents. Even Protagoras had to go into exile, Anaxagoras was with difficulty rescued from imprisonment by Pericles, and Socrates, though he had nothing whatever to do with such matters, nevertheless lost his life because of philosophy. 4 It was not until later times that the radiant repute of Plato, because of the life the man led, and because he subjected the compulsions of the physical world to divine and more sovereign principles, took away the obloquy of such doctrines as these, and gave their science free course among all men. At any rate, his friend Dion, although the moon suffered an eclipse at the time when he was about to set out from Zacynthus on his voyage against Dionysius, was in no wise disturbed, but put to sea, landed at Syracuse, and drove out the tyrant.
[Nic. 23.5] 5 However, it was the lot of Nicias at this time to be without even a soothsayer who was expert. The one who had been his associate, and who used to set him free from most of his superstition, Stilbides, had died a short time before. For indeed the sign from Heaven, as Philochorus observed, was not an obnoxious one to fugitives, but rather very propitious; concealment is just what deeds of fear need, whereas light is an enemy to them. 6 And besides, men were wont to be on their guard against portents of sun and moon for three days only, as Autocleides has remarked in his “Exegetics”; but Nicias persuaded the Athenians to wait for another full period of the moon, as if, forsooth, he did not see that the planet was restored to purity and splendour just as soon as she had passed beyond the region which was darkened and obscured by the earth.
[Nic. 24.1] 24 1 Abandoning almost everything else, Nicias lay there sacrificing and divining until the enemy came up against him. With their land forces they laid siege to his walls and camp, and with their fleet they took possession of the harbour round about. Not only the men of Syracuse in their triremes, but even the striplings, on board of fishing smacks and skiffs, sailed up from every side with challenges and insults for the Athenians. 2 To one of these, a boy of noble parentage, Heracleides by name, who had driven his boat well on before the rest, an Attic ship gave chase, and was like to capture him. But the boy’s uncle, Pollichus, concerned for his safety, rowed out to his defence with the ten triremes which were under his orders, and then the other commanders, fearing in turn for the safety of Pollichus, likewise put out for the scene of action. A fierce sea fight was thus brought on, in which the Syracusans were victorious, and slew Eurymedon along with many others.
[Nic. 24.3] 3 Accordingly the Athenians could no longer endure to remain there, but cried out loudly upon their generals and bade them withdraw by land; for the Syracusans, immediately after their victory, had blocked up and shut off the mouth of the harbour. But Nicias could not consent to this. He said it would be a terrible thing to abandon so many transports, and triremes almost two hundred in number. 4 So he embarked the best of his infantry and the most efficient of his javelineers to man a hundred and ten triremes; the rest lacked oars. Then he stationed the remainder of his army along the shore of the harbour, abandoning his main camp and the walls which connected it with the Heracleum. And so it was that the Syracusans, who had so long been unable to offer their customary sacrifice to Heracles, offered it then, priests and generals going up to the temple for this purpose while their triremes were a manning.
[Nic. 25.1] 25 1 Presently their diviners announced to the Syracusans that the sacrifices indicated a splendid victory for them if only they did not begin the fighting, but acted on the defensive. Heracles also, they said, always won the day because he acted on the defensive and suffered himself to be attacked first. Thus encouraged, they put out from shore.
[Nic. 25.2] This proved the greatest and hottest sea fight they had yet made, and roused as many tumultuous emotions in those who were mere spectators as in those who did the fighting, because the whole action was in plain sight, and took on shifts and turns which were varied, unexpected, and sudden. Their own equipment wrought the Athenians no less harm than did that of their enemy; for they fought against light and nimble ships, which bore down upon them from different directions at once, 2 while their own were heavy and clumsy and all crowded together. Besides, they were bombarded with stones, whose blow is just as effective however they light; whereas they could only reply with javelins and arrows, whose proper cast was disturbed by the tossing water, so that they did not all fly head on to their mark. This method of fighting was taught the Syracusans by Ariston the Corinthian captain, who fought zealously while the battle lasted, only to fall just as the Syracusans were victorious.
[Nic. 25.3] 3 The Athenians suffered such great rout and loss that they were cut off from flight by sea. Even by land they saw that their salvation was a difficult matter, so that they neither tried to hinder the enemy from towing away their ships under their very eyes, nor did they ask the privilege of taking up their dead. These, sooth, could go unburied; the survivors were confronted with a more pitiful sight in the abandonment of their sick and wounded, and thought themselves more wretched still than their dead, since they were sure to come with more sorrows than they to the same end after all.
[Nic. 26.1] 26 1 They purposed to set out during the night, and Gylippus, who saw that the Syracusans were given over to sacrificial revels because of their victory and their festival of Heracles, despaired of persuading or compelling them to rise up from their pleasures at once and attack their enemy as he departed. But Hermocrates, all on his own account, concocted a trick to put upon Nicias, 2 and sent certain companions to him with assurances that they were come from those men who before this had often held secret conferences with him. They advised Nicias not to set out during the night, inasmuch as Syracusans had laid snares for him and preoccupied the ways of escape. Nicias was completely outgeneralled by this trick, and so ended by suffering in very truth at the hands of his enemies what their lies had made him fear. 3 For the Syracusans set forth at break of day, occupied the difficult points in the roads, fortified the river fords, cut away the bridges, and posted their cavalry in the smooth open spaces, so that no spot was left where the Athenians could go forward without fighting.
[Nic. 26.4] They waited therefore all that day and the following night, and then set out, for all the world as though they were quitting their native city and not an enemy’s country, with wailings and lamentations at their lack of the necessaries of life and their enforced abandonment of helpless friends and comrades. And yet they regarded these present sorrows as lighter than those which they must expect to come. 4 Many were the fearful scenes in the camp, but the most pitiful sight of all was Nicias himself, undone by his sickness, and reduced, as he little deserved, to a scanty diet, and to the smallest supply of those personal comforts whereof he stood so much in need because of his disease. And yet, all his weakness, he persisted in doing what many of the strong could barely endure, and all saw plainly that it was not for his own sake or for any mere love of life that he was faithful to his tasks, but that for their sakes he would not give up hope. 5 The rest, for very fear and distress, had recourse to lamentations and tears; but whenever he was driven to this pass, it was plainly because he was contrasting the shameful dishonour to which his expedition had now come with the great and glorious successes which he had hoped to achieve.
[Nic. 26.6] 6 Besides, it was not merely the sight of him now, but also the memory of the arguments and exhortations with which he had once tried to prevent the sailing of the expedition, that led men to think him all the more unworthy to suffer such hardships now; and they had no courage to hope for aid from the gods when they reflected that a man so devout as he, and one who had performed so many great and splendid religious services, now met with no seemlier fortune than the basest and most obscure man in his army.
[Nic. 27.1] 27 1 However, it was this very Nicias who tried, both by words and looks and kindly manner, to show himself superior to his dreadful lot. And during all the march which he conducted for eight successive days, though suffering from the missiles of the enemy, he yet succeeded in keeping his own forces from defeat, until Demosthenes and his detachment of the army were captured. these fell behind as they fought their way along, and were surrounded on the homestead of Polyzelus. 2 Demosthenes himself drew his sword and gave himself a thrust; he did not, however, succeed in killing himself, since the enemy quickly closed in upon him and seized him.
[Nic. 27.3] When the Syracusans rode up and told Nicias of this disaster, he first sent horsemen to make certain that the force of Demosthenes was really taken, and then proposed to Gylippus a truce permitting the Athenians to depart from Sicily after giving hostages to the Syracusans for all the moneys which they had expended on the war. 3 But they would not entertain the proposal. Nay, with insolent rage they reviled and insulted him, and kept pelting him with missiles, destitute as he was of all the necessaries of life. However, through that night and the following day he managed to hold out, and finally came, under constant fire, to the river Asinarus. There some of his men were crowded along by the enemy and thrust into the stream, 4 while others, in advance of pursuit, were impelled by thirst to cast themselves in, and an exceeding great and savage carnage raged in the river itself, men being butchered as they drank. At last Nicias fell down at the feet of Gylippus and cried: “Have pity, Gylippus, now that you are victorious, not on me at all, though my great successes have brought me name and fame, but on the rest of these Athenians. Remember that the fortunes of war are common to all, and that the Athenians, when they were in good fortune, used it with moderation and gentleness toward you.”
[Nic. 27.5] 5 So spake Nicias, and Gylippus felt some compunction, both at the sight of him, and at what he said. For he knew that the Lacedaemonians had been well treated by him when the peace was made, and, besides, he thought it would kept his own fame if he should bring home alive the generals who had opposed him. Therefore he raised Nicias up, gave him words of cheer, and issued command to take the rest of his men alive. But the command made its way slowly along, so that the spared were far fewer than the slain. And yet many were stolen and hidden away by the soldiery.
[Nic. 27.6] 6 The public prisoners were collected together, the fairest and tallest trees along the river bank were hung with the captured suits of armour, and then the victors crowned themselves with wreaths, adorned their own horses splendidly while they sheared and cropped the horses of their conquered foes, and so marched into the city. They had brought to successful end a struggle which was the most brilliant ever made by Hellenes against Hellenes, and had won the completest of victories by the most overwhelming and impetuous display of zeal and valour.
[Nic. 28.1] 28 1 At a general assembly of the Syracusans and their allies, Eurycles, the popular leader, brought in a motion, first, that the day on which they had taken Nicias be made a holy day, with sacrifices and abstention from labour, and that the festival be called Asinaria, from the river Asinarus (the day was the twenty-sixth of the month Carneius, which the Athenians call Metageitnion); 2 and second, that the serving men of the Athenians and their immediate allies be sold into slavery, while the freemen and the Sicilian Hellenes who had joined them be cast into the stone quarries for watch and ward, — all except the generals, who should be put to death.
[Nic. 28.3] These propositions were adopted by the Syracusans. When Hermocrates protested that there was something better than victory, to wit, a noble use of victory, he was met with a tumult of disapproval; and when Gylippus demanded the Athenian generals as his prize, that he might take them alive to the Lacedaemonians, the Syracusans, now grown insolent with their good fortune, abused him roundly. 3 They were the more ready to do this because, all through the war, they had found it hard to put up with his harshness and the Laconian style with which he exercised his authority. Timaeus says, moreover, that they denounced his exceeding penuriousness and avarice, — an inherited infirmity, it would seem, since his father, Cleandridas, was convicted of taking bribes and had to flee his country. And Gylippus himself, for abstracting thirty talents from the thousand which Lysander had sent to Sparta, and hiding them in the roof of his house, — as an informer was prompt to show, — was banished in the deepest disgrace. But this has been told with more detail in my Life of Lysander.
[Nic. 28.4] 4 Timaeus denies that Demosthenes and Nicias were put to death by the orders of the Syracusans, as Philistus and Thucydides state; but rather, Hermocrates sent word to them of the decision of the assembly while it was yet in session, and with the connivance of one of their guards they took their own lives. Their bodies, however, he says, were cast out at the prison door, and lay there in plain sight of all who craved the spectacle. 5 And I learn that down to this day there is shown among the treasures of a temple in Syracuse a shield which is said to have been the shield of Nicias. It is a welded mosaic of gold and purple interwoven with rare skill.
[Nic. 29.1] 29 1 Most of the Athenians perished in the stone quarries of disease and evil fare, their daily rations being a pint of barley meal and a half-pint of water; but not a few were stolen away and sold into slavery, or succeeded in passing themselves off for serving men. These, when they were sold, were branded in the forehead with the mark of a horse, — yes, there were some freemen who actually suffered this indignity in addition to their servitude.
[Nic. 29.2] 2 But even these were helped by their restrained and decorous bearing; some were speedily set free, and some remained with their masters in positions of honour. Some also were saved for the sake of Euripides. For the Sicilians, it would seem, more than any other Hellenes outside the home land, had a yearning fondness for his poetry. They were forever learning by heart the little specimens and morsels of it which visitors brought them from time to time, and imparting them to one another with fond delight. 3 In the present case, at any rate, they say that many Athenians who reached home in safety greeted Euripides with affectionate hearts, and recounted to him, some that they had been set free from slavery for rehearsing what they remembered of his works; and some that when they were roaming about after the final battle they had received food and drink for singing some of his choral hymns. Surely, then, one need not wonder at the story that the Caunians, when a vessel of theirs would have put in at the harbour of Syracuse to escape pursuit by pirates, were not admitted at first, but kept outside, until, on being asked if they knew any songs of Euripides, they declared that they did indeed, and were for this reason suffered to bring their vessel safely in.
[Nic. 30.1] 30 1 The Athenians, they say, put no faith in the first tidings of the calamity, most of all because of the messenger who brought them. A certain stranger, as it would seem, landed at the Piraeus, took a seat in a barber’s shop, and began to discourse of what had happened as if the Athenians already knew all about it. The barber, on hearing this, before others learned of it, ran at the top of his speed to the upper city, accosted the archons, and at once set the story going in the market place. 2 Consternation and confusion reigned, naturally, and the archons convened an assembly and brought the man before it. But, on being asked from whom he had learned the matter, he was unable to give any clear answer, and so it was decided that he was a story-maker, and was trying to throw the city into an uproar. He was therefore fastened to the wheel and racked a long time, until messengers came with the actual facts of the whole disaster. So hard was it for the Athenians to believe that Nicias had suffered the fate which he had often foretold to them.

## Crassus

[Crass. 1.1] 1 1 MARCUS Crassus was the son of a man who had been censor and had enjoyed a triumph; but he was reared in a small house with two brothers. His brothers were married while their parents were still alive, and all shared the same table, which seems to have been the chief reason why Crassus was temperate and moderate in his manner of life. When one of his brothers died, Crassus took the widow to wife, and had his children by her, and in these relations also he lived as well-ordered a life as any Roman. 2 And yet when he was further on in years, he was accused of criminal intimacy with Licinia, one of the vestal virgins, and Licinia was formally prosecuted by a certain Plotius. Now Licinia was the owner of a pleasant villa in the suburbs which Crassus wished to get at a low price, and it was for this reason that he was forever hovering about the woman and paying his court to her, until he fell under the abominable suspicion. And in a way it was his avarice that absolved him from the charge of corrupting the vestal, and he was acquitted by the judges. But he did not let Licinia go until he had acquired her property.
[Crass. 2.1] 2 1 The Romans, it is true, say that the many virtues of Crassus were obscured by his sole vice of avarice; and it is likely that the one vice which became stronger than all the others in him weakened the rest. The chief proofs of his avarice are found in the way he got his property and in the amount of it. 2 For at the outset he was possessed of not more than three hundred talents; then during his consulship he sacrificed the tenth of his goods to Hercules, feasted the people, gave every Roman out of his own means enough to live on for three months, and still, when he made a private inventory of his property before his Parthian expedition, he found that it had a value of seventy-one hundred talents. 3 The greatest part of this, if one must tell the scandalous truth, he got together out of fire and war, making the public calamities his greatest source of revenue.
[Crass. 2.4] For when Sulla took the city and sold the property of those whom he had put to death, considering it and calling it spoil of war, and wishing to defile with his crime as many and as influential men as he could, Crassus was never tired of accepting or of buying it. 4 And besides this, observing how natural and familiar at Rome were such fatalities as the conflagration and collapse of buildings, owing to their being too massive and close together, he proceeded to buy slaves who were architects and builders. Then, when he had over five hundred of these, he would buy houses that were afire, and houses which adjoined those that were afire, and these their owners would let go at a trifling price owing to their fear and uncertainty. In this way the largest part of Rome came into his possession. 5 But though he owned so many artisans, he built no house for himself other than the one in which he lived; indeed, he used to say that men who were fond of building were their own undoers, and needed no other foes. And though he owned numberless silver mines, and highly valuable tracts of land with the labourers upon them, nevertheless one might regard all this as nothing compared with the value of his slaves; 6 so many and so capable were the slaves he possessed, — readers, amanuenses, silversmiths, stewards, table-servants; and he himself directed their education, and took part in it himself as a teacher, and, in a word, he thought that the chief duty of the master was to care for his slaves as the living implements of household management.
[Crass. 2.7] 7 And in this Crassus was right, if, as he used to say, he held that anything else was to be done for him by his slaves, but his slaves were to be governed by their master. For household management, as we see, is a branch of finance in so far as it deals with lifeless things; but a branch of politics when it deals with men. He was not right, however, in thinking, and in saying too, that no one was rich who could not support an army out of his substance; 8 for “war has no fixed rations,” as King Archidamus said, and therefore the wealth requisite for war cannot be determined. Far different was the opinion of Marius, who said, after distributing to each of his veterans fourteen acres of land and discovering that they desired more, “May no Roman ever think that land too small which suffices to maintain him.”
[Crass. 3.1] 3 1 However, Crassus was generous with strangers, for his house was open to all; and he used to lend money to his friends without interest, but he would demand it back from the borrower relentlessly when the time had expired, and so the gratuity of the loan was more burdensome than heavy interest. When he entertained at table, his invited guests were for the most part plebeians and men of the people, and the simplicity of the repast was combined with a neatness and good cheer which gave more pleasure than lavish expenditure.
[Crass. 3.2] 2 As for his literary pursuits, he cultivated chiefly the art of speaking which was of general service, and after making himself one of the most powerful speakers at Rome, his care and application enabled him to surpass those who were most gifted by nature. For there was no case, they say, however trifling and even contemptible it might be, which he undertook without preparation, but often, when Pompey and Caesar and Cicero were unwilling to plead, he would perform all the duties of an advocate. And on this account he became more popular than they, being esteemed a careful man, and one who was ready with his help. 3 He pleased people also by the kindly and unaffected manner with which he clasped their hands and addressed them. For he never met a Roman so obscure and lowly that he did not return his greeting and call him by name. It is said also that he was well versed in history, and was something of a philosopher withal, attaching himself to the doctrines of Aristotle, in which he had Alexander as a teacher. This man gave proof of contentedness and meekness by his intimacy with Crassus; 4 for it is not easy to say whether he was poorer before or after his relations with his pupil. At any rate he was the only one of the friends of Crassus who always accompanied him when he went abroad, and then he would receive a cloak for the journey, which would be reclaimed on his return. But this was later on.
[Crass. 4.1] 4 1 When Cinna and Marius got the upper hand, it was at once apparent that they would re-enter the city not for the good of their country, but for the downright destruction and ruin of the nobles; those who were caught were slain, and among them were the father and brother of Crassus. Crassus himself, being very young, escaped the immediate peril, but perceiving that he was surrounded on all sides by the huntsmen of the tyrants, he took with him three friends and ten servants and fled with exceeding speed into Spain, where he had been before, while his father was praetor there, and had made friends. 2 But finding all men filled with fear and trembling at the cruelty of Marius as though he were close upon them, he had not the courage to present himself to any one. Instead, he plunged into some fields along the sea-shore belonging to Vibius Paciacus. In these there was a spacious cave, where he hid himself. However, since his provisions were now running low, and wishing to sound the man, he sent a slave to Vibius. 3 But Vibius, on hearing the message, was delighted that Crassus had escaped, and after learning the number of his party and the place of their concealment, did not indeed come in person to see them, but brought the overseer of the property near the place, and ordered him to bring a complete meal there every day, put it near the cliff, and then go away without a word; he was not to meddle in the matter nor investigate it, and was threatened with death if he did meddle, and promised his freedom if he co-operated faithfully.
[Crass. 4.4] 4 The cave is not far away from the sea, and the cliffs which enclose it leave a small and indistinct path leading inside; but when one has entered, it opens out to a wonderful height, and at the sides has recesses of great circumference opening into one another. 5 There is no lack of water or of light, but a spring of purest flow issues from the base of the cliff, and natural fissures in the rock, where its edges join, admit the light from outside, so that in the day-time the place is bright. The air inside is dry and pure, owing to the thickness of the rock, which deflects all moisture and dripping water into the spring.
[Crass. 5.1] 5 1 Here Crassus lived, and day by day the man came with the provisions. He himself did not see the party of the cave, nor even know who they were, but he was seen by them, since they knew and were on the watch for the time of his coming. Now, the meals were abundant, and so prepared as to gratify the taste and not merely satisfy hunger. 2 For Vibius had made up his mind to pay Crassus every sort of friendly attention, and it even occurred to him to consider the youth of his guest, that he was quite a young man, and that some provision must be made for the enjoyments appropriate to his years; the mere supply of his wants he regarded as the work of one who rendered help under compulsion rather than with ready zeal. So he took with him two comely female slaves and went down towards the sea. When he came to the place of the cave, he showed them the path up to it, and bade them go inside and fear nothing. 3 When Crassus saw them approaching, he was afraid that the place had been discovered and was now known. He asked them, accordingly, who they were and what they wanted. They answered, as instructed, that they were in search of a master who was hidden there. Then Crassus understood the kindly joke which Vibius was playing upon him, and received the girls; 4 and they lived with him the rest of the time, carrying the necessary messages to Vibius. Fenestella says that he saw one of these slaves himself, when she was now an old woman, and often heard her mention this episode and rehearse its details with zest.
[Crass. 6.1] 6 1 Thus Crassus passed eight months in concealment; but as soon as he heard of Cinna’s death, he disclosed himself. Many flocked to his standard, out of whom he selected twenty-five hundred men, and went about visiting the cities. One of these, Malaca, he plundered, as many writers testify, but they say that he himself denied the charge and quarrelled with those who affirmed it. 2 After this he collected sailing vessels, crossed into Africa, and joined Metellus Pius, an illustrious man, who had got together a considerable army. However, he remained there no long time, but after dissension with Metellus set out and joined Sulla, with whom he stood in a position of special honour. But when Sulla crossed into Italy, he wished all the young men with him to take active part in the campaign, and assigned different ones to different undertakings. Crassus, being sent out to raise a force among the Marsi, asked for an escort, since his road would take him past the enemy. 3 But Sulla was wroth, and said to him vehemently: “I give thee as an escort, they father, thy brother, thy friends, and thy kinsmen, who were illegally and unjustly put to death, and whose murderers I am pursuing.” Thus rebuked and incited, Crassus set out at once, and forcing his way vigorously through the enemy, raised a considerable force, and showed himself an eager partisan of Sulla in his struggles.
[Crass. 6.4] 4 Out of these activities first arose, as they say, his ambitious rivalry with Pompey for distinction. For although Pompey was the younger man, and the son of a father who had been in ill repute at Rome and hated most bitterly by his fellow-citizens, still, in the events of this time his talents shone forth conspicuously, and he was seen to be great, so that Sulla paid him honours not very often accorded to men who were older and of equal rank with himself, rising at his approach, uncovering his head, and saluting him as Imperator. 5 All this inflamed and goaded Crassus, although it was not without good reason that Sulla thus made less of him.
[Crass. 6.6] For he was lacking in experience, and his achievements were robbed of their favour by the innate curses of avarice and meanness which beset him. For instance, when he captured the Umbrian city of Tuder, it was believed that he appropriated to himself most of the spoil, and charges to this effect were laid before Sulla. 6 But in the struggle near Rome, which was the last and greatest of all, while Sulla was defeated and his army repulsed and shattered, Crassus was victorious with the right wing, pursued the enemy till nightfall, and then sent to Sulla informing him of his success and asking supper for his soldiers. However, during the proscriptions and public confiscations which ensued, he got a bad name again, by purchasing great estates at a low price, and asking donations. 7 It is said that in Bruttium he actually proscribed a man without Sulla’s orders, merely to get his property, and that for this reason Sulla, who disapproved of his conduct, never employed him again on public business. And yet Crassus was most expert in winning over all men by his flatteries; on the other hand, he himself was an easy prey to flattery from anybody. And this too is said to have been a peculiarity of his, that, most avaricious as he was himself, he particularly hated and abused those who were like him.
[Crass. 7.1] 7 1 Now it vexed him that Pompey was successful in his campaigns, and was called Magnus (that is, Great) by his fellow-citizens. And once when some one said: “Pompeius Magnus is coming,” Crassus fell to laughing and asked: “How great is he?” 2 Renouncing, therefore, all efforts to equal Pompey in military achievements, he plunged into politics, and by his zealous labours, his favours as advocate and money-lender, and his co-operation in all the solicitations and examinations which candidates for office had to make and undergo, he acquired an influence and a repute equal to that which Pompey possessed from his many and great expeditions. 3 And the experience of each man was peculiar. For Pompey’s name and power were greater in the city when he was away from it, owing to his campaigns; but when he was at home, he was often less powerful than Crassus, because the pomp and circumstance of his life led him to shun crowds, retire from the forum, and render aid to a few only of those who asked it of him, and then with no great zest, that he might keep his influence the more unimpaired for use in his own behalf. 4 But Crassus was continually ready with his services, was ever at hand and easy of access, and always took an active part in the enterprises of the hour, and so by the universal kindness of his behaviour won the day over his rival’s haughty bearing. But in dignity of person, persuasiveness of speech, and winning grace of feature, both were said to be alike gifted.
[Crass. 7.5] 5 However, this eager rivalry did not carry Crassus away into anything like hatred or malice; he was merely vexed that Pompey and Caesar should be honoured above himself, but he did not associate this ambition of his with enmity or malevolence. It is true that once when Caesar had been captured by pirates in Asia and was held a close prisoner by them, he exclaimed: “O Crassus, how great a pleasure wilt thou taste when thou hearest of my capture!” 6 But afterwards, at least, they were on friendly terms with one another, and once when Caesar was on the point of setting out for Spain as praetor, and had no money, and his creditors descended upon him and began to attach his outfit, Crassus did not leave him in the lurch, but freed him from embarrassment by making himself his surety for eight hundred and thirty talents. 7 And when all Rome was divided into three powerful parties, that of Pompey, that of Caesar, and that of Crassus (for Cato’s reputation was greater than his power, and men admired him more than they followed him), it was the thoughtful and conservative part of the city which attached itself to Pompey, the violent and volatile part which supported the hopes of Caesar, 8 while Crassus took a middle ground and drew from both. He made very many changes in his political views, and was neither a steadfast friend nor an implacable enemy, but readily abandoned both his favours and his resentments at the dictates of his interests, so that, frequently, within a short space of time, the same men and the same measures found in him both an advocate and an opponent. 9 And he had great influence, both from the favours which he bestowed and the fear which he inspired, but more from the fear. At any rate, Sicinnius, who gave the greatest annoyance to the magistrates and popular leaders of his day, when asked why Crassus was the only one whom he let alone and did not worry, said that the man had hay on his horn. Now the Romans used to coil hay about the horn of an ox that gored, so that those who encountered it might be on their guard.
[Crass. 8.1] 8 1 The insurrection of the gladiators and their devastation of Italy, which is generally called the war of Spartacus, had its origin as follows. A certain Lentulus Batiatus had a school of gladiators at Capua, most of whom were Gauls and Thracians. Through no misconduct of theirs, but owing to the injustice of their owner, they were kept in close confinement and reserved for gladiatorial combats. 2 Two hundred of these planned to make their escape, and when information was laid against them, those who got wind of it and succeeded in getting away, seventy-eight in number, seized cleavers and spits from some kitchen and sallied out. On the road they fell in with waggons conveying gladiators’ weapons to another city; these they plundered and armed themselves. Then they took up a strong position and elected three leaders. The first of these was Spartacus, a Thracian of Nomadic stock, possessed not only of great courage and strength, but also in sagacity and culture superior to his fortune, and more Hellenic than Thracian. 3 It is said that when he was first brought to Rome to be sold, a serpent was seen coiled about his face as he slept, and his wife, who was of the same tribe as Spartacus, a prophetess, and subject to visitations of the Dionysiac frenzy, declared it the sign of a great and formidable power which would attend him to a fortunate issue. This woman shared in his escape and was then living with him.
[Crass. 9.1] 9 1 To begin with, the gladiators repulsed the soldiers who came against them from Capua, and getting hold of many arms of real warfare, they gladly took these in exchange for their own, casting away their gladiatorial weapons as dishonourable and barbarous. Then Clodius the praetor was sent out from Rome against them with three thousand soldiers, and laid siege to them on a hill which had but one ascent, and that a narrow and difficult one, which Clodius closely watched; 2 everywhere else there were smooth and precipitous cliffs. But the top of the hill was covered with a wild vine of abundant growth, from which the besieged cut off the serviceable branches, and wove these into strong ladders of such strength and length that when they were fastened at the top they reached along the face of the cliff to the plain below. On these they descended safely, all but one man, who remained above to attend to the arms. When the rest had got down, he began to drop the arms, and after he had thrown them all down, got away himself also last of all in safety. 3 Of all this the Romans were ignorant, and therefore their enemy surrounded them, threw them into consternation by the suddenness of the attack, put them to flight, and took their camp. They were also joined by many of the herdsmen and shepherds of the region, sturdy men and swift of foot, some of whom they armed fully, and employed others as scouts and light infantry.
[Crass. 9.4] 4 In the second place, Publius Varinus, the praetor, was sent out against them, whose lieutenant, a certain Furius, with two thousand soldiers, they first engaged and routed; then Spartacus narrowly watched the movements of Cossinius, who had been sent out with a large force to advise and assist Varinus in the command, and came near seizing him as he was bathing near Salinae. 5 Cossinius barely escaped with much difficulty, and Spartacus at once seized his baggage, pressed hard upon him in pursuit, and took his camp with great slaughter. Cossinius also fell. By defeating the praetor himself in many battles, and finally capturing his lictors and the very horse he rode, Spartacus was soon great and formidable; but he took a proper view of the situation, and since he could not expect to overcome the Roman power, began to lead his army toward the Alps, thinking it necessary for them to cross the mountains and go to their respective homes, some to Thrace, and some to Gaul. 6 But his men were now strong in numbers and full of confidence, and would not listen to him, but went ravaging over Italy.
[Crass. 9.7] It was now no longer the indignity and disgrace of the revolt that harassed the senate, but they were constrained by their fear and peril to send both consuls into the field, as they would to a war of the utmost difficulty and magnitude. 7 Gellius, one of the consuls, fell suddenly upon the Germans, who were so insolent and bold as to separate themselves from the main body of Spartacus, and cut them all to pieces; but when Lentulus, the other consul, had surrounded the enemy with large forces, Spartacus rushed upon them, joined battle, defeated the legates of Lentulus, and seized all their baggage. Then, as he was forcing his way towards the Alps, he was met by Cassius, the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, with an army of ten thousand men, and in the battle that ensued, Cassius was defeated, lost many men, and escaped himself with difficulty.
[Crass. 10.1] 10 1 On learning of this, the Senate angrily ordered the consuls to keep quiet, and chose Crassus to conduct the war, and many of the nobles were induced by his reputation and their friendship for him to serve under him. Crassus himself, accordingly, took position on the borders of Picenum, expecting to receive the attack of Spartacus, who was hastening thither; and he sent Mummius, his legate, with two legions, by a circuitous route, with orders to follow the enemy, but not to join battle nor even to skirmish with them. 2 Mummius, however, at the first promising opportunity, gave battle and was defeated; many of his men were slain, and many of them threw away their arms and fled for their lives. Crassus gave Mummius himself a rough reception, and when he armed his soldiers anew, made them give pledges that they would keep their arms. Five hundred of them, moreover, who had shown the greatest cowardice and been first to fly, he divided into fifty decades, and put to death one from each decade, on whom the lot fell, thus reviving, after the lapse of many years, an ancient mode of punishing the soldiers. 3 For disgrace also attaches to this manner of death, and many horrible and repulsive features attend the punishment, which the whole army witnesses.
[Crass. 10.4] When he had thus disciplined his men, he led them against the enemy. But Spartacus avoided him, and retired through Lucania to the sea. At the Straits, he chanced upon some Cilician pirate craft, and determined to seize Sicily. By throwing two thousand men into the island, he thought to kindle anew the servile war there, which had not long been extinguished, and needed only a little additional fuel. 4 But the Cilicians, after coming to terms with him and receiving his gifts, deceived him and sailed away. So Spartacus marched back again from the sea and established his army in the peninsula of Rhegium. Crassus now came up, and observing that the nature of the place suggested what must be done, he determined to build a wall across the isthmus, thereby at once keeping his soldiers from idleness, and his enemies from provisions. 5 Now the task was a huge one and difficult, but he accomplished and finished it, contrary to all expectation, in a short, running a ditch from sea to sea through the neck of land three hundred furlongs in length and fifteen feet in width and depth alike. Above the ditch he also built a wall of astonishing height and strength. 6 All this work Spartacus neglected and despised at first; but soon his provisions began to fail, and when he wanted to sally forth from the peninsula, he saw that he was walled in, and that there was nothing more to be had there. He therefore waited for a snowy night and a wintry storm, when he filled up a small portion of the ditch with earth and timber and the boughs of trees, and so threw a third part of his force across.
[Crass. 11.1] 11 Crassus was now in fear lest some impulse to march upon Rome should seize Spartacus, but took heart when he saw that many of the gladiator’s men had seceded after a quarrel with him, and were encamped by themselves on a Lucanian lake. This lake, they say, changes from time to time in the character of its water, becoming sweet, and then again bitter and undrinkable. Upon this detachment Crassus fell, and drove them away from the lake, but he was robbed of the slaughter and pursuit of the fugitives by the sudden appearance of Spartacus, who checked their flight.
[Crass. 11.2] 2 Before this Crassus had written to the senate that they must summon Lucullus from Thrace and Pompey from Spain, but he was sorry now that he had done so, and was eager to bring the war to an end before those generals came. He knew that the success would be ascribed to the one who came up with assistance, and not to himself. Accordingly, in the first place, he determined to attack those of the enemy who had seceded from the rest and were campaigning on their own account (they were commanded by Caius Canicius and Castus), and with this in view, sent out six thousand men to preoccupy a certain eminence, bidding them keep their attempt a secret. 3 And they did try to elude observation by covering up their helmets, but they were seen by two women who were sacrificing for the enemy, and would have been in peril of their lives had not Crassus quickly made his appearance and given battle, the most stubbornly contested of all; for although he slew twelve thousand three hundred men in it, he found only two who were wounded in the back. The rest all died standing in the ranks and fighting the Romans.
[Crass. 11.4] 4 After the defeat of this detachment, Spartacus retired to the mountains of Petelia, followed closely by Quintus, one of the officers of Crassus, and by Scrophas, the quaestor, who hung upon the enemy’s rear. But when Spartacus faced about, there was a great rout of the Romans, and they barely managed to drag the quaestor, who had been wounded, away into safety. This success was the ruin of Spartacus, for it filled his slaves with over-confidence. 5 They would no longer consent to avoid battle, and would not even obey their leaders, but surrounded them as soon as they began to march, with arms in their hands, and forced them to lead back through Lucania against the Romans, the very thing which Crassus also most desired. For Pompey’s approach was already announced, and there were not a few who publicly proclaimed that the victory in this war belonged to him; he had only to come and fight and put an end to the war. Crassus, therefore, pressed on to finish the struggle himself, and having encamped near the enemy, began to dig a trench. Into this the slaves leaped and began to fight with those who were working there, 6 and since fresh men from both sides kept coming to help their comrades, Spartacus saw the necessity that was upon him, and drew up his whole army in order of battle.
[Crass. 11.7] In the first place, when his horse was brought to him, he drew his sword, and saying that if he won the day he would have many fine horses of the enemy’s, but if he lost it he did not want any, he slew his horse. Then pushing his way towards Crassus himself through many flying weapons and wounded men, he did not indeed reach him, but slew two centurions who fell upon him together. 7 Finally, after his companions had taken to flight, he stood alone, surrounded by a multitude of foes, and was still defending himself when he was cut down. But although Crassus had been fortunate, had shown most excellent generalship, and had exposed his person to danger, nevertheless, his success did not fail to enhance the reputation of Pompey. For the fugitives from the battle encountered that general and were cut to pieces, so he could write to the senate that in open battle, indeed, Crassus had conquered the slaves, but that he himself had extirpated the war. 8 Pompey, accordingly, for his victories over Sertorius and in Spain, celebrated a splendid triumph; but Crassus, for all his self-approval, did not venture to ask for the major triumph, and it was thought ignoble and mean in him to celebrate even the minor triumph on foot, called the ovation, for a servile war. How the minor triumph differs from the major, and why it is named as it is, has been told in my life of Marcellus.
[Crass. 12.1] 12 1 After this, Pompey was at once asked to stand for the consulship, and Crassus, although he had hopes of becoming his colleague, did not hesitate to ask Pompey’s assistance. Pompey received his request gladly (for he was desirous of having Crassus, in some way or other, always in debt to him for some favour), and eagerly promoted his candidature, and finally said in a speech to the assembly that he should be no less grateful to them for the colleague than for the office which he desired. 2 However, when once they had assumed office, they did not remain on this friendly basis, but differed on almost every measure, and by their contentiousness rendered their consulship barren politically and without achievement, except that Crassus made a great sacrifice in honour of Hercules, feasted the people at ten thousand tables, and made them an allowance of grain for three months. 3 And when at last their term of office was closing, and they were addressing the assembly, a certain man, not a noble, but a Roman knight, rustic and rude in his way of life, Onatius Aurelius, mounted the rostra and recounted to the audience a vision that had come to him in his sleep. “Jupiter,” he said, “appeared to me and bade me declare in public that you should not suffer your consuls to lay down their office until they become friends.” 4 When the man said this and the people urged a reconciliation, Pompey, for his part, stood motionless, but Crassus took the initiative, clasped him by the hand, and said: “Fellow-citizens, I think there is nothing humiliating or unworthy in my taking the first step towards good-will and friendship with Pompey, to whom you gave the title of ‘Great’ before he had grown a beard, and voted him a triumph before he was a senator.”
[Crass. 13.1] 13 1 Such, then, were the memorable things in the consulship of Crassus, but his censorship passed without any results or achievements whatever. He neither made a revision of the senate, nor a scrutiny of the knights, nor a census of the people, although he had Lutatius Catulus, the gentlest of the Romans, for his colleague. But they say that when Crassus embarked upon the dangerous and violent policy of making Egypt tributary to Rome, Catulus opposed him vigorously, whereupon, being at variance, both voluntarily laid down their office.
[Crass. 13.2] 2 In the affair of Catiline, which was very serious, and almost subversive of Rome, some suspicion attached itself to Crassus, and a man publicly named him as one of the conspirators, but nobody believed him. 3 Nevertheless, Cicero, in one of his orations, plainly inculpated Crassus and Caesar. This oration, it is true, was not published until after both were dead; but in the treatise upon his consulship, Cicero says that Crassus came to him by night with a letter which gave details of the affair of Catiline, and felt that he was at last establishing the fact of a conspiracy. 4 And Crassus, accordingly, always hated Cicero for this, but was kept from doing him any open injury by his son. For Publius Crassus, being given to literature and learning, was attached to Cicero, so much so that he put on mourning when Cicero did at the time of his trial, and prevailed upon the other young men to do the same. And finally he persuaded his father to become Cicero’s friend.
[Crass. 14.1] 14 1 Now when Caesar came back from his province and prepared to seek the consulship, he saw that Pompey and Crassus were once more at odds with each other. He therefore did not wish to make one of them an enemy by asking the aid of the other, nor did he have any hope of success if neither of them helped him. 2 Accordingly, he tried to reconcile them by persistently showing them that their mutual ruin would only increase the power of such men as Cicero, Catulus, and Cato, men whose influence would be nothing if Crassus and Pompey would only unite their friends and adherents, and with one might and one purpose direct the affairs of the city. He persuaded them, reconciled them, and won them both to his support, and constituted with that triumvirate an irresistible power, with which he overthrew the senate and the people, not by making his partners greater, the one through the other, but by making himself greatest of all through them. 3 For owing to the support of both he was at once triumphantly elected consul. And during his consulship they voted him armies to command, and put Gaul into his hands, and so, as it were, established him in an acropolis, thinking to share the rest with one another at their leisure if they secured to him his allotted province.
[Crass. 14.4] 4 Now Pompey did all this from an unbounded love of power; but to that ancient infirmity of Crassus, his avarice, there was now added a fresh and ardent passion, in view of the glorious exploits of Caesar, for trophies and triumphs. In these alone he thought himself inferior to Caesar, but superior in everything else. And his passion gave him no rest nor peace until it ended in an inglorious death and public calamities. 5 For when Caesar came down to the city of Luca from Gaul, many Romans came thither to meet him, and among them Pompey and Crassus. These held private conferences with Caesar, and the three determined to carry matters with a higher hand, and to make themselves sole masters of the state. Caesar was to remain in his command, while Pompey and Crassus were to take other provinces and armies. 6 But the only way to secure this end was by soliciting a second consulship. Since Pompey and Crassus were candidates for this, Caesar was to co-operate with them by writing letters to his friends and by sending many of his soldiers home to support them at the elections.
[Crass. 15.1] 15 1 With this understanding, Crassus and Pompey returned to Rome, and were at once objects of suspicion; report was rife through the whole city that their meeting with Caesar had been for no good purpose. In the senate, also, when Marcellinus and Domitius asked Pompey if he was going to be a candidate for the consulship, he replied that perhaps he was, and perhaps he was not; and when asked the question again, he said he should solicit the votes of the good citizens, but not those of the bad. 2 Since his answers were thought to have been made in pride and arrogance, Crassus said, more modestly, when the question was put to him, that if it was for the interest of the city, he would be a candidate for the office, but otherwise he would desist. For this reason divers persons were emboldened to sue for the consulship, one of whom was Domitius. When, however, Pompey and Crassus openly announced their candidature, the rest took fright and withdrew from the contest; but Cato encouraged Domitius, who was a kinsman and friend of his, to proceed, urging and inciting him to cling to his hopes, assured that he would do battle for the common freedom. For it was not the consulate, he said, which Crassus and Pompey wanted, but a tyranny, nor did their course of action mean simply a canvass for office, but rather a seizure of provinces and armies.
[Crass. 15.3] 3 With such words and such sentiments Cato all but forced Domitius to go down into the forum as a candidate, and many joined their party. Many, too, voiced their amazement thus: “Why, pray, should these men want a second consulship? And why once more together? Why not have other colleagues? Surely there are many men among us who are not unworthy to be colleagues of Pompey and Crassus!” 4 Alarmed at this, the partizans of Crassus and Pompey abstained from no disorder or violence, however extreme, and capped the climax by waylaying Domitius, as he was coming down into the forum before day-break with his followers, killing his torch-bearer, and wounding many, among whom was Cato. 5 After routing their opponents and shutting them up at home, they had themselves proclaimed consuls, and a short time afterwards they once more surrounded the rostra with armed men, cast Cato out of the forum, slew several who made resistance, and then had another five years added to the proconsulship of Caesar in Gaul, and the provinces of Syria and both Spains voted to themselves. When the lot was cast, Syria fell to Crassus, and the Spains to Pompey.
[Crass. 16.1] 16 1 Now the lot fell out to the satisfaction of everybody. For most of the people wished Pompey to be not far away from the city; Pompey, who was passionately fond of his wife, intended to spend most of his time there; and as for Crassus, as soon as the lot fell out, he showed his joy that he regarded no piece of good fortune in his whole life as more radiant than the one which had now come to him. Among strangers and in public he could scarcely hold his peace, while to his intimates he made many empty and youthful boasts which ill became his years and his disposition, for he had been anything but boastful or bombastic before this. 2 But now, being altogether exalted and out of his senses, he would not consider Syria nor even Parthia as the boundaries of his success, but thought to make the campaigns of Lucullus against Tigranes and those of Pompey against Mithridates seem mere child’s play, and flew on the wings of his hopes as far as Bactria and India and the Outer Sea.
[Crass. 16.3] 3 And yet in the decree which was passed regarding his mission there was no mention of a Parthian war. But everybody knew that Crassus was all eagerness for this, and Caesar wrote to him from Gaul approving of his project, and inciting him on to the war. And when Ateius, one of the tribunes of the people, threatened to oppose his leaving the city, and a large party arose which was displeased that anyone should go out to wage war on men who had done the state no wrong, but were in treaty relations with it, then Crassus, in fear, begged Pompey to come to his aid and to join in escorting him out of the city. 4 For great was Pompey’s reputation with the crowd. And now, when the multitude drawn up to resist the passage of Crassus, and to abuse him, saw Pompey’s beaming countenance in front of him, they were mollified, and gave way before them in silence. But Ateius, on meeting Crassus, at first tried to stop him with words, and protested against his advance; then he bade his attendant seize the person of Crassus and detain him. 5 And when the other tribunes would not permit this, the attendant released Crassus, but Ateius ran on ahead to the city gate, placed there a blazing brazier, and when Crassus came up, cast incense and libations upon it, and invoked curses which were dreadful and terrifying in themselves, and were reinforced by sundry strange and dreadful gods whom he summoned and called by name. The Romans say that these mysterious and ancient curses have such power that no one involved in them ever escapes, and misfortune falls also upon the one who utters them, wherefore they are not employed at random nor by many. And accordingly at this time they found fault with Ateius because it was for the city’s sake that he was angered at Crassus, and yet he had involved the city in curses which awakened much superstitious terror.
[Crass. 17.1] 17 1 But Crassus came to Brundisium. And though the sea was still rough with wintry storms, he would not wait, but put out, and so lost a great number of his vessels. With what was left of his forces, however, he hurried on by land through Galatia. And finding that King Deiotarus, who was now a very old man, was founding a new city, he rallied him, saying: 2 “O King, you are beginning to build at the twelfth hour.” The Galatian laughed and said: “But you yourself, Imperator, as I see, are not marching very early in the day against the Parthians.” Now Crassus was sixty years old and over, and looked older than his years. On his arrival, things went at first as he had hoped, for he easily bridged the Euphrates and led his army across in safety, and took possession of many cities in Mesopotamia which came over to him of their own accord. 3 But at one of them, of which Apollonius was tyrant, a hundred of his soldiers were slain, whereupon he led up his forces against it, mastered it, plundered its property, and sold its inhabitants into slavery. The city was called Zenodotia by the Greeks. For its capture he allowed his soldiers to salute him as Imperator, thereby incurring much disgrace and showing himself of a paltry spirit and without good hope for the greater struggles that lay before him, since he was so delighted with a trifling acquisition. 4 After furnishing the cities which had come over to his side with garrisons, which amounted in all to seven thousand men-at arms and a thousand horsemen, he himself withdrew to take up winter quarters in Syria, and to await there his son, who was coming from Caesar in Gaul, decorated with the insignia of his deeds of valour, and leading a thousand picked horsemen.
[Crass. 17.5] This was thought to be the first blunder which Crassus committed, — after the expedition itself, which was the greatest of all his blunders, — because, when he should have advanced and come into touch with Babylon and Seleucia, cities always hostile to the Parthians, he gave his enemies time for preparation. 5 Then, again, fault was found with him because his sojourn in Syria was devoted to mercenary rather than to military purposes. For he made no estimate of the number of his troops, and instituted no athletic contests for them, but reckoned up the revenues of cities, and spent many days weighing exactly the treasures of the goddess in Hierapolis, and prescribed quotas of soldiers for districts and dynasts to furnish, only to remit the prescription when money was offered him, thereby losing their respect and winning their contempt. 6 And the first warning sign came to him from this very goddess, whom some call Venus, others Juno, while others regard her as the natural cause which supplies from moisture the beginnings and seeds of everything, and points out to mankind the source of all blessings. For as they were leaving her temple, first the youthful Crassus stumbled and fell at the gate, and then his father fell over him.
[Crass. 18.1] 18 1 No sooner had he begun to assemble his forces from their winter quarters than envoys came to him from Arsaces with a wonderfully brief message. They said that if the army had been sent out by the Roman people, it meant war without truce and without treaty; but if it was against the wishes of his country, as they were informed, and for his own private gain that Crassus had come up in arms against the Parthians and occupied their territory, then Arsaces would act with moderation, would take pity on the old age of Crassus, and release to the Romans the men whom he had under watch and ward rather than watching over him. 2 To this Crassus boastfully replied that he would give his answer in Seleucia, whereupon the eldest of the envoys, Vagises, burst out laughing and said, pointing to the palm of his upturned hand: “O Crassus, hair will grow there before thou shalt see Seleucia.”
[Crass. 18.3] The embassy, accordingly, rode away to King Hyrodes, to tell him there must be war. But from the cities of Mesopotamia in which the Romans had garrisons, certain men made their escape at great hazard and brought tidings of serious import. 3 They had been eyewitnesses both of the numbers of the enemy and of their mode of warfare when they attacked their cities, and, as is usual, they exaggerated all the terrors of their report. “When the men pursued,” they declared, “there was no escaping them, and when they fled, there was no taking them; and strange missiles are the precursors of their appearance, which pierce through every obstacle before one sees who sent them; and as for the armour of their mail-clad horsemen, some of it is made to force its way through everything, and some of it to give way to nothing.” 4 When the soldiers heard this, their courage ebbed away. For they had been fully persuaded that the Parthians were not different at all from the Armenians or even the Cappadocians, whom Lucullus had robbed and plundered till he was weary of it, and they had thought that the most difficult part of the war would be the long journey and the pursuit of men who would not come to close quarters; but now, contrary to their hopes, they were led to expect a struggle and great peril. Therefore some of the officers thought that Crassus ought to call a halt and reconsider the whole undertaking. Among these was Cassius, the quaestor. 5 The seers, also, quietly let it become known that the omens for Crassus which came from their sacrifices were always bad and inauspicious. But Crassus paid no heed to them, nor to those who advised anything else except to press forward.
[Crass. 19.1] 19 1 And most of all, Artabazes the king of Armenia gave him courage, for he came to his camp with six thousand horsemen. These were said to be the king’s guards and couriers; but he promised ten thousand mail-clad horsemen besides, and thirty thousand footmen, to be maintained at his own cost. 2 And he tried to persuade Crassus to invade Parthia by way of Armenia, for thus he would not only lead his forces along in the midst of plenty, which the king himself would provide, but would also proceed with safety, confronting the cavalry of the Parthians, in which lay their sole strength, with many mountains, and continuous crests, and regions where the horse could not well serve. Crassus was tolerably well pleased with the king’s zeal and with the splendid reinforcements which he offered, but said he should march through Mesopotamia, where he had left many brave Romans. 3 Upon this, the Armenian rode away.
[Crass. 19.4] Now, as Crassus was taking his army across the Euphrates at Zeugma, many extraordinary peals of thunder crashed about them, and many flashes of lightning also darted in their faces, and a wind, half mist and half hurricane, fell upon their raft, breaking it up and shattering it in many places. 4 The place where he was intending to encamp was also smitten by two thunderbolts. And one of the general’s horses, richly caparisoned, violently dragged its groom along with it into the river and disappeared beneath the waves. It is said also that the first eagle which was raised aloft, faced about of its own accord. 5 Besides all this, it happened that when their rations were distributed to the soldiers after the crossing of the river, lentils and salt came first, which are held by the Romans to be tokens of mourning, and are set out as offerings to the dead. Moreover, Crassus himself, while haranguing his men, let fall a phrase which terribly confounded them. He said, namely, that he should destroy the bridge over the river, that not one of them might return. And although he ought, as soon as he perceived the strangeness of his expression, to have recalled it and made his meaning clear to his timorous hearers, he was too obstinate to do so. 6 And finally, when he was making the customary sacrifice of purification for the army, and the seer placed the viscera in his hands, he let them fall to the ground; then, seeing that the bystanders were beyond measure distressed at the occurrence, he smiled and said: “Such is old age; but no weapon, you may be sure, shall fall from its hands.”
[Crass. 20.1] 20 1 After this, he marched along the river with seven legions of men-at arms, nearly four thousand horsemen, and about as many light-armed troops. Some of his scouts now came back from their explorations, and reported that the country was destitute of men, but that they had come upon the tracks of many horses which had apparently wheeled about and fled from pursuit. Wherefore Crassus himself was all the more confident, and his soldiers went so far as to despise the Parthians utterly, believing that they would not come to close quarters. 2 But, nevertheless, Cassius once more had a conference with Crassus, and advised him above all things to recuperate his forces in one of the garrisoned cities, until he should get some sure information about the enemy; but if not this, then to advance to Seleucia along the river. For in this way the transports would keep them abundantly supplied with provisions by putting in at their successive encampments, and, by having the river to prevent their being surrounded, they would always fight their enemies on even terms and face to face.
[Crass. 21.1] 21 1 While Crassus was still investigating and considering these matters, there came an Arab chieftain, Ariamnes by name, a crafty and treacherous man, and one who proved to be, of all the mischiefs which fortune combined for the destruction of the Romans, the greatest and most consummate. 2 Some of the soldiers who had served under Pompey in these parts knew that the fellow had profited by the kindness of that commander and was thought to be a friend of Rome; but now, with the knowledge of the royal generals, he tried to work his way into the confidence of Crassus, to see if he could turn him aside as far as possible from the river and the foothills, and bring him down into a boundless plain where he could be surrounded. For nothing was farther from the thoughts of the Parthians than to attack the Romans in front. 3 Accordingly, coming to Crassus, the Barbarian (and he was a plausible talker, too) lauded Pompey as his benefactor, and complimented Crassus on his forces. But then he criticised him for wasting time in delays and preparations, as if it was arms that he needed, and not hands and the swiftest of feet to follow after men who had for some time been trying to snatch up their most valuable goods and slaves and fly with them into Scythia or Hyrcania. 4 “And yet,” said he, “if you intend to fight, you ought to hasten on before all the king’s forces are concentrated and he has regained his courage; since, for the time being, Surena and Sillaces have been thrown forward to sustain your pursuit, but the king is nowhere to be seen.”
[Crass. 21.5] 5 Now this was all false. For Hyrodes had promptly divided his forces into two parts and was himself devastating Armenia to punish Artavasdes, while he despatched Surena to meet the Romans. And this was not because he despised them, as some say, for he could not consistently disdain Crassus as an antagonist, a man who was foremost of the Romans, and wage war on Artavasdes, attacking and taking the villages of Armenia; on the contrary, it seems that he was in great fear of the danger which threatened, and therefore held himself in reserve and watched closely the coming event, while he sent Surena forward to make trial of the enemy in battle and to distract them. 6 Nor was Surena an ordinary man at all, but in wealth, birth, and consideration, he stood next the king, while in valour and ability he was the foremost Parthian of his time, besides having no equal in stature and personal beauty. He used to travel on private business with a baggage train of a thousand camels, and was followed by two hundred waggons for his concubines, while a thousand mail-clad horsemen and a still greater number of light-armed cavalry served as his escort; and had altogether, as horsemen, vassals, and slaves, no fewer than ten thousand men. 7 Moreover, he enjoyed the ancient and hereditary privilege of being first to set the crown upon the head of the Parthian king; and when this very Hyrodes was driven out of Parthia, he restored him to his throne, and captured for him Seleucia the Great, having been the first to mount its walls, and having routed with his own hand his opponents. And though at this time he was not yet thirty years of age, he had the highest reputation for prudence and sagacity, and it was especially by means of these qualities that he also brought Crassus to ruin, who, at first by reason of his boldness and conceit, and then in consequence of his fears and calamities, was an easy victim of deceits.
[Crass. 22.1] 22 1 At this time, accordingly, after the Barbarian had persuaded Crassus, he drew him away from the river and led him through the midst of the plains, by a way that was suitable and easy at first, but soon became troublesome when deep sand succeeded, and plains which had no trees, no water, and no limit anywhere which the eye could reach, so that not only did thirst and the difficulties of the march exhaust the men, but also whatever met their gaze filled them with an obstinate dejection. 2 For they saw no plant, no stream, no projection of sloping hill, and no growing grass, but only sea-like billows of innumerable desert sand-heaps enveloping the army. This of itself was enough to induce suspicion of treachery, and soon messengers came from Artavasdes the Armenian declaring that he was involved in a great war with Hyrodes, who had attacked him with an overwhelming force, and could not therefore send Crassus aid, 3 but advised him above all things to turn his course thither, join the Armenians, and fight the issue out with Hyrodes; but if not this, then to march and encamp always where mountains were near and cavalry could not operate. Crassus sent no reply in writing, but answered at once in rage and perversity that for the present he had no time to waste on the Armenians, but that at another time he would come and punish Artavasdes for his treachery.
[Crass. 22.4] 4 But Cassius was once more greatly displeased, and though he stopped advising Crassus, who was angry with him, he did privately abuse the Barbarian. “Basest of men,” he said, “what evil spirit brought you to us? With what drugs and jugglery did you persuade Crassus to pour his army into a yawning and abysmal desert and follow a route more fit for a robber chief of Nomads than for a Roman imperator?” 5 But the Barbarian, who was a subtle fellow, tried to encourage them with all servility, and as he ran along by the side of the soldiers and gave them his help, he would laughingly banter them and say: “Is it through Campania that you think you are marching, yearning for its fountains and streams and shades and baths (to be sure!) and taverns? But remember that you are traversing the border land between Assyria and Arabia.” 6 Thus the Barbarian played the tutor with the Romans, and rode away before his deceit had become manifest, not, however, without the knowledge of Crassus, nay, he actually persuaded him that he was going to work in his interests and confound the counsels of his enemies.
[Crass. 23.1] 23 1 It is said that on that day Crassus did not make his appearance in a purple robe, as is the custom with Roman generals, but in a black one, and that he changed it as soon as he noticed his mistake; also that some of the standard-bearers had great difficulty in raising their standards, which seemed to be imbedded, as it were, in the earth. 2 Crassus made light of these things and hurried on the march, compelling the men-at arms to keep up with the cavalry, until a few of those who had been sent out as scouts came riding up and announced that the rest of their number had been slain by the enemy, that they themselves had with difficulty escaped, and that their foes were coming up to fight with a large force and great confidence. 3 All were greatly disturbed, of course, but Crassus was altogether frightened out of his senses, and began to draw up his forces in haste and with no great consistency. At first, as Cassius recommended, he extended the line of his men-at arms as far as possible along the plain, with little depth, to prevent the enemy from surrounding them, and divided all his cavalry between the two wings. Then he changed his mind and concentrated his men, forming them in a hollow square of four fronts, with twelve cohorts on each side. 4 With each cohort he placed a squadron of horse, that no part of the line might lack cavalry support, but that the whole body might advance to the attack with equal protection everywhere. He gave one of the wings to Cassius, and one to the young Crassus, and took his own position in the centre.
[Crass. 23.5] Advancing in this formation, they came to a stream called Balissus, which was not large, to be sure, nor plentiful, but by this time the soldiers were delighted to see it in the midst of the drought and heat and after their previous toilsome march without water. 5 Most of the officers, accordingly, thought they ought to bivouac and spend the night there, and after learning as much as they could of the number and disposition of the enemy, to advance against them at day-break. But Crassus was carried away by the eagerness of his son and the cavalry with him, who urged him to advance and give battle, and he therefore ordered that the men who needed it should eat and drink as they stood in the ranks. 6 And before they were all well done with this, he led them on, not slowly, nor halting from time to time, as is usual on the way to battle, but with a quick and sustained pace until the enemy came in sight, who, to the surprise of the Romans, appeared to be neither numerous nor formidable. For Surena had veiled his main force behind his advance guard, and concealed the gleam of their armour by ordering them to cover themselves with robes and skins. But when they were near the Romans and the signal was raised by their commander, first of all they filled the plain with the sound of a deep and terrifying roar. 7 For the Parthians do not incite themselves to battle with horns or trumpets, but they have hollow drums of distended hide, covered with bronze bells, and on these they beat all at once in many quarters, and the instruments give forth a low and dismal tone, a blend of wild beast’s roar and harsh thunder peal. They had rightly judged that, of all the senses, hearing is the one most apt to confound the soul, soonest rouses its emotions, and most effectively unseats the judgment.
[Crass. 24.1] 24 1 While the Romans were in consternation at this din, suddenly their enemies dropped the coverings of their armour, and were seen to be themselves blazing in helmets and breastplates, their Margianian steel glittering keen and bright, and their horses clad in plates of bronze and steel. 2 Surena himself, however, was the tallest and fairest of them all, although his effeminate beauty did not well correspond to his reputation for valour, but he was dressed more in the Median fashion, with painted face and parted hair, while the rest of the Parthians still wore their hair long and bunched over their foreheads, in Scythian fashion, to make themselves look formidable. 3 And at first they purposed to charge upon the Romans with their long spears, and throw their front ranks into confusion; but when they saw the depth of their formation, where shield was locked with shield, and the firmness and composure of the men, they drew back, and while seeming to break their ranks and disperse, they surrounded the hollow square in which their enemy stood before he was aware of the manoeuvre. 4 And when Crassus ordered his light-armed troops to make a charge, they did not advance far, but encountering a multitude of arrows, abandoned their undertaking and ran back for shelter among the men-at arms, among whom they caused the beginning of disorder and fear, for these now saw the velocity and force of the arrows, which fractured armour, and tore their way through every covering alike, whether hard or soft.
[Crass. 24.5] 5 But the Parthians now stood at long intervals from one another and began to shoot their arrows from all sides at once, not with any accurate aim (for the dense formation of the Romans would not suffer an archer to miss even if he wished it), but making vigorous and powerful shots from bows which were large and mighty and curved so as to discharge their missiles with great force. 6 At once, then, the plight of the Romans was a grievous one; for if they kept their ranks, they were wounded in great numbers, and if they tried to come to close quarters with the enemy, they were just as far from effecting anything and suffered just as much. For the Parthians shot as they fled, and next to the Scythians, they do this most effectively; and it is a very clever thing to seek safety while still fighting, and to take away the shame of flight.
[Crass. 25.1] 25 1 Now as long as they had hopes that the enemy would exhaust their missiles and desist from battle or fight at close quarters, the Romans held out; but when they perceived that many camels laden with arrows were at hand, from which the Parthians who first encircled them took a fresh supply, then Crassus, seeing no end to this, began to lose heart, and sent messengers to his son with orders to force an engagement with the enemy before he was surrounded; for it was his wing especially which the enemy were attacking and surrounding with their cavalry, in the hope of getting in his rear. 2 Accordingly, the young man took thirteen hundred horsemen, of whom a thousand had come from Caesar, five hundred archers, and eight cohorts of the men-at arms who were nearest him, and led them all to the charge. But the Parthians who were trying to envelop him, either because, as some say, they encountered marshes, or because they were manoeuvring to attack Publius as far as possible from his father, wheeled about and made off. 3 Then Publius, shouting that the men did not stand their ground, rode after them, and with him Censorinus and Megabacchus, the latter distinguished for his courage and strength, Censorinus a man of senatorial dignity and a powerful speaker, and both of them comrades of Publius and nearly of the same age. The cavalry followed after Publius, and even the infantry kept pace with them in the zeal and joy which their hopes inspired; for they thought they were victorious and in pursuit of the enemy, until, after they had gone forward a long distance, they perceived the ruse. For the seeming fugitives wheeled about and were joined at the same time by others more numerous still. 4 Then the Romans halted, supposing that the enemy would come to close quarters with them, since they were so few in number. But the Parthians stationed their mail-clad horsemen in front of the Romans, and then with the rest of their cavalry in loose array rode round them, tearing up the surface of the ground, and raising from the depths great heaps of sand which fell in limitless showers of dust, so that the Romans could neither see clearly nor speak plainly, 5 but, being crowded into a narrow compass and falling upon one another, were shot, and died no easy nor even speedy death. For, in the agonies of convulsive pain, and writhing about the arrows, they would break them off in their wounds, and then in trying to pull out by force the barbed heads which had pierced their veins and sinews, they tore and disfigured themselves the more.
[Crass. 25.6] 6 Thus many died, and the survivors also were incapacitated for fighting. And when Publius urged them to charge the enemy’s mail-clad horsemen, they showed him that their hands were riveted to their shields and their feet nailed through and through to the ground, so that they were helpless either for flight or for self-defence. 7 Publius himself, accordingly, cheered on his cavalry, made a vigorous charge with them, and closed with the enemy. But his struggle was an unequal one both offensively and defensively, for his thrusting was done with small and feeble spears against breastplates of raw hide and steel, whereas the thrusts of the enemy were made with pikes against the lightly equipped and unprotected bodies of the Gauls, since it was upon these that Publius chiefly relied, and with these he did indeed work wonders. 8 For they laid hold of the long spears of the Parthians, and grappling with the men, pushed them from their horses, hard as it was to move them owing to the weight of their armour; and many of the Gauls forsook their own horses, and crawling under those of the enemy, stabbed them in the belly. These would rear up in their anguish, and die trampling on riders and foemen indiscriminately mingled. 9 But the Gauls were distressed above all things by the heat and their thirst, to both of which they were unused; and most of their horses had perished by being driven against the long spears. They were therefore compelled to retire upon the men-at arms, taking with them Publius, who was severely wounded. And seeing a sandy hillock near by, they all retired to it, and fastened their horses in the centre; then locking their shields together on the outside, they thought they could more easily defend themselves against the Barbarians. 10 But it turned out just the other way. For on level ground, the front ranks do, to some extent, afford relief to those who are behind them. But here, where the inequality of the ground raised one man above another, and lifted every man who was behind another into greater prominence, there was no such thing as escape, but they were all alike hit with arrows, bewailing their inglorious and ineffectual death.
[Crass. 25.11] 11 Now there were with Publius two Greeks, of those who dwelt near by in Carrhae, Hieronymus and Nicomachus. These joined in trying to persuade him to slip away with them and make their escape to Ichnae, a city which had espoused the Roman cause and was not far off. But Publius, declaring that no death could have such terrors for him as to make him desert those who were perishing on his account, ordered them to save their own lives, bade them farewell, and dismissed them. Then he himself, being unable to use his hand, which had been pierced through with an arrow, presented his side to his shield-bearer and ordered him to strike home with his sword. 12 In like manner also Censorinus is said to have died; but Megabacchus took his own life, and so did the other most notable men. The survivors fought on until the Parthians mounted the hill and transfixed them with their long spears, and they say that not more than five hundred were taken alive. Then the Parthians cut off the head of Publius, and rode off at once to attack Crassus.
[Crass. 26.1] 26 1 His situation was as follows. After ordering his son to charge the Parthians and receiving tidings that the enemy were routed to a great distance and hotly pursued, and after noticing also that his own immediate opponents were no longer pressing him so hard (since most of them had streamed away to where Publius was), he recovered a little courage, and drawing his troops together, posted them for safety on sloping ground, in immediate expectation that his son would return from the pursuit. 2 Of the messengers sent by Publius to his father, when he began to be in danger, the first fell in with the Barbarians and were slain; the next made their way through with difficulty and reported that Publius was lost unless he received speedy and abundant aid from his father. 3 And now Crassus was a prey to many conflicting emotions, and no longer looked at anything with calm judgement. His fear for the whole army drove him to refuse, and at the same time his yearning love for his son impelled him to grant assistance; but at last he began to move his forces forward.
[Crass. 26.4] At this point, however, the enemy came up with clamour and battle cries which made them more fearful than ever, and again many of their drums began bellowing about the Romans, who awaited the beginning of a second battle. 4 Besides, those of the enemy who carried the head of Publius fixed high upon a spear, rode close up and displayed it, scornfully asking after his parents and family, for surely, they said, it was not meet that Crassus, most base and cowardly of men, should be the father of a son so noble and of such splendid valour. This spectacle shattered and unstrung the spirits of the Romans more than all the rest of their terrible experiences, and they were all filled, not with a passion for revenge, as was to have been expected, but with shuddering and trembling. 5 And yet Crassus, as they say, showed more brilliant qualities in that awful hour than ever before, for he went up and down the ranks crying: “Mine, O Romans, is this sorrow, and mine alone; but the great fortune and glory of Rome abide unbroken and unconquered in you, who are alive and safe. And now if ye have any pity for me, thus bereft of the noblest of sons, show it by your wrath against the enemy. Rob them of their joy; avenge their cruelty; be not cast down at what had happened, for it must needs be that those who aim at great deeds should also suffer greatly. 6 It was not without bloody losses that even Lucullus overthrew Tigranes, or Scipio Antiochus; and our fathers of old lost a thousand ships off Sicily, and in Italy many imperators and generals, not one of whom, by his defeat, prevented them from afterwards mastering his conquerors. For it was not by good fortune merely that the Roman state reached its present plenitude of power, but by the patient endurance and valour of those who faced dangers in its behalf.”
[Crass. 27.1] 27 1 Even as he spoke such words of encouragement, Crassus saw that not many of his men listened with any eagerness, but when he also bade them raise the battle cry, he discovered how despondent his army was, so weak, feeble, and uneven was the shout they made, while that which came from the Barbarians was clear and bold. Then, as the enemy got to work, their light cavalry rode round on the flanks of the Romans and shot them with arrows, while the mail-clad horsemen in front, plying their long spears, kept driving them together into a narrow space, except those who, to escape death from the arrows, made bold to rush desperately upon their foes. 2 These did little damage, but met with a speedy death from great and fatal wounds, since the spear which the Parthians thrust into the horses was heavy with steel, and often had impetus enough to pierce through two men at once. After fighting in this manner till night came on, the Parthians withdrew, saying that they would grant Crassus one night in which to bewail his son, unless, with a better regard for his own interests, he should consent to go to Arsaces instead of being carried there.
[Crass. 27.3] 3 The Parthians, then, bivouacked near by, and were in high hopes; but it was a grievous night for the Romans. They took no steps to bury their dead nor to care for their wounded and dying, but every man was lamenting his own fate. Escape seemed impossible, whether they waited there for day to come, or plunged by night into a limitless plain. And their wounded caused them much perplexity: they were sure to impede flight if they were carried away, and if they were left behind, their cries would herald to the enemy the retreat of their companions. 4 Although the soldiers held Crassus to blame for all their ills, still they yearned to see his face and hear his voice. But he was lying on the ground by himself, enveloped in darkness, to the multitude an illustration of the ways of fortune, but to the wise an example of foolish ambition, which would not let him rest satisfied to be first and greatest among many myriads of men, but made him think, because he was judged inferior to two men only, that he lacked everything.
[Crass. 27.5] 5 At this time, then, Octavius the legate and Cassius tried to rouse him up and encourage him. But since he was in utter despair, they called together on their own authority the centurions and captains, and when they had decided, upon deliberation, not to remain where they were, they put the army in motion without trumpet signal, and in silence at first. Then the sick and wounded perceived that their comrades were abandoning them, and dreadful disorder and confusion, accompanied by groans and shouts, filled the camp. 6 And after this, as they tried to advance, disorder and panic seized upon them, for they felt sure that the enemy was coming against them. Frequently they would change their course, frequently they would form in order of battle, some of the wounded who followed them had to be taken up, and others to be laid down, and so all were delayed, except three hundred horsemen under Ignatius, who reached Carrhae about midnight. 7 Ignatius hailed the sentinels on the walls in the Roman tongue, and when they answered, ordered them to tell Coponius, their commander, that there had been a great battle between Crassus and the Parthians. Then, without another word, and without even telling who he was, he rode off to Zeugma. He saved himself and his men, but got a bad name for deserting his general. 8 However, the message shouted to Coponius at that time was of some advantage to Crassus. For Coponius, concluding that the haste and brevity of the message argued a bearer of no good news, ordered his men to arm forthwith, and as soon as he learned that Crassus was on the march, he went out to meet him, relieved him, and escorted his army into the city.
[Crass. 28.1] 28 1 During the night the Parthians, although they were aware of the flight of the Romans, did not pursue; but as soon as day came, they attacked and slaughtered those who had been left behind in the Roman camp, to the number of four thousand, and then rode about and seized many who were wandering in the plain. 2 Four cohorts together, also, which Vargontinus the legate had suffered to get detached from the main body while it was still dark, and which had lost their way, were surrounded on a sort of hill, and cut to pieces as they fought, all except twenty men. The Parthians, admiring these men, who tried to push their way through them with drawn swords, made way for them and suffered them to pass through and march deliberately to Carrhae.
[Crass. 28.3] A false report now reached Surena that Crassus, along with the men of highest rank, had made his escape, and that the fugitives who had streamed into Carrhae were a mixed rabble unworthy of his notice. Supposing, therefore, that he had lost the fruits of his victory, but being still in doubt and wishing to learn the truth, in order that he might either wait there and lay siege to Crassus in the city, or else let Carrhae alone and pursue him, he sent one of his attendants who could speak both languages up to the walls, with orders to call out in the Roman tongue for Crassus himself or Cassius, saying that Surena wished to have a conference with them. 4 The interpreter gave this message, and when it was reported to Crassus, he accepted the invitation. A little while afterwards there came from the Barbarians some Arabs, who knew Crassus and Cassius well by sight, having been in their camp before the battle. When these men saw Crassus on the wall, they said that Surena proposed a truce, and offered them safe conduct if they would be friends of the king and leave Mesopotamia; for this he saw was more advantageous to both parties than any resort to extreme measures. 5 Cassius accepted the proposal, and asked that time and place be fixed for a conference between Surena and Crassus. The men said that this should be done, and rode away.
[Crass. 29.1] 29 1 Now Surena was delighted that the men were where he could besiege them, and when day came, he led his Parthians up against the city. With many insults they ordered the Romans, if they wished to obtain a truce, to deliver Crassus and Cassius into their hands in fetters. 2 The Romans were distressed to find themselves deceived, and telling Crassus to abandon his distant and vain hopes of aid from the Armenians, prepared for flight, of which none of the men of Carrhae were to know beforehand. But Andromachus, the most faithless of men, learned of it, for Crassus not only confided the secret to him, but made him the guide for the journey. Accordingly, everything was known to the Parthians, for Andromachus reported to them all the details. 3 But since it is not the custom, and so not easy, for the Parthians to fight by night, and since Crassus set out by night, Andromachus, by leading the fugitives now by one route and now by another, contrived that the pursuers should not be left far behind, and finally he diverted the march into deep marshes and regions full of ditches, thus making it difficult and circuitous for those who still followed him. 4 For there were some who conjectured that the twisting and turning of Andromachus boded no good, and therefore did not follow him. Crassus, indeed, went back again to Carrhae, and when his guides, who were Arabs, urged him to wait there until the moon had passed the Scorpion, he said that he feared the Archer even more than the Scorpion, and rode off into Syria with five hundred horsemen. 5 And others, too, employing trusty guides, reached a hill country called Sinnaca, and established themselves in safety before day came. These were about five thousand men, and they were led by Octavius, a brave man.
[Crass. 29.6] But day found Crassus a prey to the wiles of Andromachus in the difficult places and the marsh. 6 There were with him four cohorts of men-at arms, a few horsemen all told, and five lictors. With these he got back into the road, with great difficulty, when the enemy at once pressed upon him, and since he was about twelve furlongs short of a junction with Octavius, he took refuge on another hill, not so difficult for cavalry nor yet so strong a position, but one that lay below Sinnaca and was connected with it by a long ridge running through the midst of the plain. His danger was therefore to be seen by Octavius. 7 And Octavius ran first with a few men to bring him aid from the higher ground; then the rest of his men, reproaching themselves with cowardice, plunged forward, and falling upon the enemy and sweeping them from the hill, enveloped Crassus round about, and covered him with their shields, boldly declaring that no Parthian missile should smite their imperator until they had all died fighting in his defence.
[Crass. 30.1] 30 1 And now Surena, observing that his Parthians were already less impetuous in their attacks, and that if night should come on and the Romans should reach the hills, it would be altogether impossible to capture them, brought a stratagem to bear on Crassus. Some of his Roman captives were first released, who, while in his camp, had heard the Barbarians saying to one another, as they had been ordered to do, that the king did not wish the war between him and the Romans to be waged relentlessly, but preferred to regain their friendship by doing them the favour of treating Crassus kindly. 2 Then the Barbarians ceased fighting, and Surena with his chief officers rode quietly up the hill, unstrung his bow, held out his right hand, and invited Crassus to come to terms, saying: “I have put your valour and power to the test against the wishes of the king, who now of his own accord shows you the mildness and friendliness of his feelings by offering to make a truce with you if you will withdraw, and by affording you the means of safety.”
[Crass. 30.3] 3 When Surena said this, the rest of the Romans eagerly accepted his proposal and were full of joy, but Crassus, whose every discomfiture at the hands of the Barbarians had been due to fraud, and who thought the suddenness of their change a strange thing, would not reply, but took the matter into consideration. 4 His soldiers, however, cried out and urged him to accept, then fell to abusing and reviling him for putting them forward to fight men with whom he himself had not the courage to confer even when they came unarmed. At first he tried entreaties and arguments. If they would hold out for what was left of the day, during the night they could reach the mountains and rough country; and he showed them the road thither, and exhorted them not to abandon hope when safety was so near. 5 But when they grew angry with him, and clashed their arms together, and threatened him, then he was terrified and began to go towards Surena. As he went, however, he turned and said: “Octavius and Petronius and ye other Roman commanders here present, ye see that I go because I must, and ye are eyewitnesses of the shameful violence I suffer; but tell the world, if ye get safely home, that Crassus perished because he was deceived by his enemies, and not because he was delivered up to them by his countrymen.”
[Crass. 31.1] 31 1 Octavius, however, and those about him, did not remain, but went down from the hill with Crassus; the lictors, who were following him, Crassus drove back. The first of the Barbarians to meet him were two half-breed Greeks, who leaped from their horses and made obeisance to him; then addressing him in the Greek tongue, they urged him to send a party forward to assure themselves that Surena and those about him were advancing to the conference without armour and without weapons. 2 Crassus replied that if he had the least concern for his life, he would not have come into their hands; but nevertheless he sent two Roscii, brothers, to enquire on what terms and in what numbers they should hold their meeting. These men were promptly seized and detained by Surena, while he himself with his chief officers advanced on horseback, saying: “What is this? the Roman imperator on foot, while we are mounted?” Then he ordered a horse to be brought for Crassus. 3 And when Crassus answered that neither of them was at fault, since each was following the custom of his country in this meeting, Surena said that from that moment there was a truce and peace between King Hyrodes and the Romans, but it was necessary to go forward to the river Euphrates and there have the contracts put in writing; “for you Romans at least,” said he, “are not very mindful of agreements,” and he held out his right hand to Crassus. Then when Crassus proposed to send for a horse, Surena said there was no need of it, “for the king offers you this one.” 4 At the same time a horse with gold-studded bridle stood at Crassus’s side, and the grooms lifted Crassus up and mounted him, and then ran along by him, quickening his horse’s pace with blows. Octavius was first to seize the bridle, and after him Petronius, one of the legionary tribunes; then the rest of the Romans in the party surrounded the horse, trying to stop him, and dragging away those who crowded in upon Crassus on either side. 5 Scuffling followed, and a tumult, then blows. Octavius drew his sword and slew the groom of one of the Barbarians, but another smote Octavius down from behind. Petronius had no offensive weapons, but when he was struck on the breastplate, leaped down from his horse unwounded. Crassus was killed by a Parthian named Pomaxathres.
[Crass. 31.6] 6 Some, however, say that it was not this man, but another, who killed Crassus, and that this man cut off the head and right hand of Crassus as he lay upon the ground. These details, however, are matters of conjecture rather than of knowledge. For of the Romans who were present there and fighting about Crassus, some were slain, and others fled back to the hill. 7 Thither the Parthians came and said that as for Crassus, he had met with his deserts, but that Surena ordered the rest of the Romans to come down without fear. Thereupon some of them went down and delivered themselves up, but the rest scattered during the night, and of these a very few made their escape; the rest of them were hunted down by the Arabs, captured, and cut to pieces. In the whole campaign, twenty thousand are said to have been killed, and ten thousand to have been taken alive.
[Crass. 32.1] 32 1 Surena now took the head and hand of Crassus and sent them to Hyrodes in Armenia, but he himself sent word by messengers to Seleucia that he was bringing Crassus there alive, and prepared a laughable sort of procession which he insultingly called a triumph. 2 That one of his captives who bore the greatest likeness to Crassus, Caius Paccianus, put on a woman’s royal robe, and under instructions to answer to the name of Crassus and the title of Imperator when so addressed, was conducted along on horseback. Before him rode trumpeters and a few lictors borne on camels; from the fasces of the lictors purses were suspended, and to their axes were fastened Roman heads newly cut off; 3 behind these followed courtezans of Seleucia, musicians, who sang many scurrilous and ridiculous songs about the effeminacy and cowardice of Crassus; and these things were for all to see.
[Crass. 32.4] But before the assembled senate of Seleucia, Surena brought licentious books of the “Milesiaca” of Aristides, and in this matter, at least, there was no falsehood on his part, for the books were found in the baggage of Roscius, and gave Surena occasion to heap much insulting ridicule upon the Romans, since they could not, even when going to war, let such subjects and writings alone. 4 The people of Seleucia, however, appreciated the wisdom of Aesop when they saw Surena with a wallet of obscenities from the “Milesiaca” in front of him, but trailing behind him a Parthian Sybaris in so many waggon-loads of concubines. After a fashion his train was a counterpart to the fabled echidnae and scytalae among serpents, by showing its conspicuous and forward portions fearful and savage, with spears, archery, and horse, 5 but trailing off in the rear of the line into dances, cymbals, lutes, and nocturnal revels with women. Roscius was certainly culpable, but it was shameless in the Parthians to find fault with the “Milesiaca,” when many of the royal line of their Arsacidae were sprung from Milesian and Ionian courtezans.
[Crass. 33.1] 33 1 While this was going on, it happened that Hyrodes was at last reconciled with Artavasdes the Armenian, and agreed to receive the latter’s sister as wife for his son Pacorus, and there were reciprocal banquets and drinking bouts, at which many Greek compositions were introduced. 2 For Hyrodes was well acquainted both with the Greek language and literature, and Artavasdes actually composed tragedies, and wrote orations and histories, some of which are preserved. Now when the head of Crassus was brought to the king’s door, the tables had been removed, and a tragic actor, Jason by name, of Tralles, was singing that part of the “Bacchae” of Euripides where Agave is about to appear. While he was receiving his applause, Sillaces stood at the door of the banqueting-hall, and after a low obeisance, cast the head of Crassus into the centre of the company. 3 The Parthians lifted it up with clapping of hands and shouts of joy, and at the king’s bidding his servants gave Sillaces a seat at the banquet. Then Jason handed his costume of Pentheus to one of the chorus, seized the head of Crassus, and assuming the role of the frenzied Agave, sang these verses through as if inspired:
[Crass. 33.1b] “We bring from the mountain
A tendril fresh-cut to the palace,
A wonderful prey.”
[Crass. 33.4] 4 This delighted everybody; but when the following dialogue with the chorus was chanted:
[Crass. 33.4b] (Chorus)
(Agave)”Who slew him?”
[Crass. 33.4c] “Mine is the honour,”
[Crass. 33.4d] Pomaxathres, who happened to be one of the banqueters, sprang up and laid hold of the head, feeling that it was more appropriate for him to say this than for Jason. The king was delighted, and bestowed on Pomaxathres the customary gifts, while to Jason he gave a talent. With such a farce as this the expedition of Crassus is said to have closed, just like a tragedy.
[Crass. 33.5] 5 However, worthy punishment overtook both Hyrodes for his cruelty and Surena for his treachery. For not long after this Hyrodes became jealous of the reputation of Surena, and put him to death; and after Hyrodes had lost his son Pacorus, who was defeated in battle by the Romans, and had fallen into a disease which resulted in dropsy, his son Phraates plotted against his life and gave him aconite. And when the disease absorbed the poison so that it was thrown off with it and the patient thereby relieved, Phraates took the shortest path and strangled his father.

## Comparison of Nicias and Crassus

[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 1.1] 565 1 1 In comparing the men, first, the wealth of Nicias was acquired in a more blameless manner than that of Crassus. For although it is true that the working of mines cannot be highly regarded, since most of it is carried on by employing malefactors or Barbarians, some of whom are kept in chains and done to death in damp and unwholesome places, still, when compared with the public confiscations of Sulla and the making of contracts where fire is raging, it will appear in the most favourable light. 2 For Crassus openly utilized these opportunities as men do agriculture and money-lending. And as for the practices which he denied when on trial, namely, taking bribes for his voice in the senate, wronging the allies, circumventing weak women with his flatteries, and aiding base men to cloak their iniquities, no such charges, even though false, were ever made against Nicias; nay, he was rather laughed at for spending his money lavishly on informers out of cowardice, a practice unbecoming, perhaps, in a Pericles and an Aristides, but necessary for him, since he was not well stocked with courage. 3 And for this practice Lycurgus the orator, in later times, boldly took to himself credit before the people, when accused of buying up one of these informers; “I am glad indeed,” he said, that after such a long political career among you, I have been detected in giving rather than receiving money.”
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 1.4] 4 As for their outlays of money, Nicias was more public spirited in his noble ambition to make offerings to the gods and provide the people with gymnastic exhibitions and trained choruses; and yet his whole estate, together with his expenditures, was not a tithe of what Crassus expended when he feasted so many myriads of men at once, and then furnished them with food afterwards. I am therefore amazed that anyone should fail to perceive that vice is a sort of inequality and incongruity of character, when he sees men amassing money shamefully and squandering it uselessly.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 2.1] 2 1 So much regarding their wealth. And now in their political careers, no chicanery nor injustice, no violence nor harshness attaches to Nicias, but he was deceived the rather by Alcibiades, and made his appeals to the people with too much caution. Whereas Crassus is accused of much ungenerous faithlessness in his vacillations between friends and enemies; and as for violence, he himself could not deny that when he stood for the consulship, he hired men to lay hands on Cato and Domitius. 2 And in the assembly which voted on the allotment of the provinces, many were wounded and four killed; and Crassus himself (a fact which escaped us in the narrative of his life), when Lucius Annalius, a senator, was speaking in opposition, smote him in the face with his fist and drove him bleeding from the forum.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 2.3] 3 But if Crassus was violent and tyrannical in these matters, Nicias went to the other extreme. His timidity and cowardice in the public service, and his subservience to the basest men, deserve the severest censure. Crassus, indeed, showed a certain loftiness and largeness of spirit in this regard, for he contended not with men like Cleon and Hyperbolus, far from it, but against the brilliant Caesar, and against Pompey with his three triumphs; and he did not shrink from their path, but made himself a match for each in power, and in the dignity of his censorial office actually surpassed Pompey. 4 For in the supreme struggles of a political career one must not adopt a course which awakens no envy, but one which dazzles men, throwing envy into the shade by the greatness of one’s power. But if, like Nicias, you set your heart above all else on security and quiet, and fear Alcibiades on the bema, and the Lacedaemonians at Pylos, and Perdiccas in Thrace, then there is ample room in the city where you can sit at leisure, removed from all activity, and “weaving for yourself,” as sundry Sophists say, “a crown of tranquillity.” 5 His love of peace, indeed, had something godlike about it, and his putting a stop to the war was a political achievement most truly Hellenic in its scope. And because Nicias did this, Crassus is not worthy of comparison with him, nor would he have been even though in his ardour he had made the Caspian Sea or the Indian Ocean a boundary of the Roman empire.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 3.1] 3 1 When, however, a man wields superior power in a city which is open to the appeals of virtue, he should not give a footing to the base, nor command to those who are no commanders at all, nor confidence to those who deserve no confidence. But this is just what Nicias did when, of his own motion, he set Cleon in command of the army, a man who was nothing more to the city than a shameless brawler from the bema. 2 I do not, indeed, commend Crassus, in the war with Spartacus, for pressing forward into action with greater speed than safety, although it was natural for a man of his ambition to fear that Pompey would come and rob him of his glory, just as Mummius had robbed Metellus of Corinth; but the conduct of Nicias was altogether strange and terrible. For it was not while it afforded him good hopes of success, or even of ease, that he renounced his ambition to hold the command in favour of his enemy, but when he saw that his generalship involved him in great peril, then he was content to betray the common good at the price of his own safety. 3 And yet Themistocles, during the Persian wars, to prevent a worthless and senseless man from ruining the city as one of its generals, bought him off from the office; and Cato stood for the tribuneship when he saw that it would involve him in the greatest toil and danger in behalf of the city. 4 Nicias, on the other hand, kept himself in the command against Minoa, and Cythera, and the wretched Melians, but when it was necessary to fight the Lacedaemonians, stripped off his general’s cloak, handed over to the inexperience and rashness of Cleon ships, men, arms, and a command requiring the utmost experience, and so betrayed not only his own reputation, but the security and safety of his own country. 5 Wherefore he was afterwards forced, against his wish and inclination, to wage war on Syracuse, for it was thought to be no calculation of what was expedient, but merely his love of ease and lack of spirit which made him use all his efforts to rob the city of Sicily.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 3.6] There is, however, this proof of his great reasonableness, namely, that although he was always averse to war and avoided military command, the Athenians ceased not to elect him to it, believing him to be their most experienced and best general. 6 Whereas Crassus, though he was all the while eager for military command, did not succeed in getting it except in the servile war, and then of necessity, because Pompey and Metellus and both the Luculli were away. And yet by that time he had acquired the greatest honour and influence in the city. But it would seem that even his best friends thought him, in the words of the comic poet, “The bravest warrior everywhere but in the field.” 7 And yet this did not prevent the Romans from being overwhelmed by his ambitious love of command. For the Athenians sent Nicias out to the war against his will; but the Romans were led out by Crassus against theirs. It was owing to Crassus that his city, but to his city that Nicias, suffered misfortune.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 4.1] 4 1 However, in this there is more ground for praising Nicias than for blaming Crassus. The former brought into play the experience and calculation of a wise leader, and did not share the deceitful hopes of his fellow-citizens, but insisted that it was beyond his power to take Sicily; whereas Crassus made the mistake of entering upon the Parthian war as a very easy undertaking. 2 And yet his aims were high; while Caesar was subduing the West, — Gaul and Germany and Britain, — he insisted on marching against the East and India, and on completing the reduction of Asia which had been begun by Pompey and Lucullus. Now these were men of good intentions and honourably disposed towards all, and yet they elected the same course as Crassus, and adopted the same principles. 3 For Pompey met with opposition from the senate when his province was allotted to him, and when Caesar routed three hundred thousand Germans, Cato moved in the senate that he should be delivered up to those whom he had vanquished, and so bring upon his own head the punishment for his breach of faith; but the people turned contemptuously from Cato, sacrificed to the gods for fifteen days in honour of Caesar’s victory, and were full of joy. 4 What, then, would have been their feelings, and for how many days would they have sacrificed to the gods, if Crassus had written to them from Babylon that he was victorious, and had then overrun Media, Persia, Hyrcania, Susa, and Bactria, and declared them Roman provinces? “For if wrong must be done,” as Euripides says, when men cannot keep quiet, and know not how to enjoy contentedly the blessings which they already have, 5 not in beating up fugitive Aeginetans, who have forsaken their own, and hidden themselves away like birds in another territory, but let a high price be demanded for the wrongdoing, and let not justice be thrown to the winds lightly, nor on the first best terms, as if it were some trifling or insignificant thing. Those who have praise for Alexander’s expedition, but blame for that of Crassus, unfairly judge of a beginning by its end.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 5.1] 5 1 As to the actual conduct of their expeditions, Nicias has not a little to his credit, for he conquered his enemies in many battles, and barely missed taking Syracuse, and not all his failures were due to himself, but they might be ascribed to his disease and to the jealousy of his fellow-citizens at home; but Crassus made so many blunders that he gave fortune no chance to favour him. We may not therefore wonder that his imbecility succumbed to the power of the Parthians, but rather that it prevailed over the usual good fortune of the Romans.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 5.2] 2 Since one of them was wholly given over to divination, and the other wholly neglected it, and both alike perished, it is hard to draw a safe conclusion from the premises; but failure from caution, going hand in hand with ancient and prevalent opinion, is more reasonable than lawlessness and obstinacy.
[Comp. Nic.–Crass. 5.2b] In his end, however, Crassus was the less worthy of reproach. He did not surrender himself, nor was he bound, nor yet beguiled, but yielded to the entreaties of his friends, and fell a prey to the perfidy of his enemies; whereas Nicias was led by the hope of a shameful and inglorious safety to put himself into the hands of his enemies, thereby making his death a greater disgrace for him.

## Eumenes

[Eum. 1.1] 583 1 1 Eumenes of Cardia, according to Duris, was the son of a man whom poverty drove to be a waggoner, in the Thracian Chersonesus, but received a liberal education in literature and athletics. While he was still a boy, Duris says further, Philip, who was sojourning in the place and had an hour of leisure, came to see the young men and boys of Cardia exercising in the pancratium and in wrestling, among whom Eumenes had such success and gave such proofs of intelligence and bravery that he pleased Philip and was taken into his following. 2 But in my opinion those historians tell a more probable story who say that a tie of guest-friendship with his father led Philip to give advancement to Eumenes. After Philip’s death Eumenes was thought to be inferior to none of Alexander’s followers in sagacity and fidelity, and though he had only the title of chief secretary, he was held in as much honour as the king’s principal friends and intimates, so that on the Indian expedition he was actually sent out as general with a force under his own orders, and received the command in the cavalry which Perdiccas had held, when Perdiccas, after Hephaestion’s death, was advanced to that officer’s position. 3 Therefore when Neoptolemus, the commander of the Shield-bearers, after Alexander’s death, said that he had followed the king with shield and spear, but Eumenes with pen and paper, the Macedonians laughed him to scorn; they knew that, besides his other honours, Eumenes had been deemed worthy by the king of relationship in marriage. For Barsiné the daughter of Artabazus, the first woman whom Alexander knew in Asia, and by whom he had a son, Heracles, had two sisters; of these Alexander gave one, Apama, to Ptolemy, and the other, also called Barsiné, to Eumenes. This was at the time when he distributed the other Persian women as consorts among his companions.
[Eum. 2.1] 2 1 However, Eumenes was often in collision with Alexander, and he got himself into danger through Hephaestion. In the first place, for instance, when Hephaestion assigned to Euius the flute-player the quarters which his servants had already taken up for Eumenes, Eumenes, accompanied by Mentor, came in a passion to Alexander and cried out that it was best for him to throw away his arms and be a flute-player or a tragic actor. The immediate result was that Alexander shared his indignation and heaped abuse upon Hephaestion. Soon, however, he changed his mind and was angry with Eumenes, feeling that he had indulged in insolence towards himself more than in bold words against Hephaestion.
[Eum. 2.2] 2 Again, when Alexander was sending out Nearchus with a fleet to explore the outer sea, he asked money of his friends, since the royal treasury was empty. Eumenes was asked for three hundred talents, but gave only a hundred, and said that even these had been slowly and with difficulty collected for him by his stewards. Alexander made no reproaches, nor did he take the money, but ordered his servants secretly to set fire to the tent of Eumenes, wishing to take its owner in a manifest lie when the treasure was carried out of it. 3 But before that could be done the tent was consumed, and the destruction of his papers made Alexander repent him of his orders. Still, the gold and silver that was melted down by the fire was found to be more than a thousand talents’ worth. Alexander took none of it, however, but actually wrote to his satraps and generals everywhere to send copies of the documents that had been destroyed, and ordered Eumenes to take them all in charge.
[Eum. 2.4] 4 And still again, Eumenes had a quarrel with Hephaestion about a certain gift, and much abusive language passed between them. At the time, indeed, Eumenes was no less in favour than before; but a little while afterwards Hephaestion died, and the king, in his bitter sorrow, dealt harshly and was severe with all who, as he thought, had been jealous of his favourite while he lived and now rejoiced at his death. Eumenes, in particular, he suspected of such feelings, and often reproached him for his former quarrels with Hephaestion and his abusive language towards him. 5 But Eumenes, who was wily and persuasive, tried to make what threatened his ruin conduce to his salvation. He sought refuge, namely, in Alexander’s ardent gratitude towards Hephaestion, suggesting honours which were most likely to adorn the memory of the deceased, and contributing money for the construction of his tomb lavishly and readily.
[Eum. 3.1] 3 1 When Alexander was dead and a quarrel had arisen between the Macedonian men-at war and his principal officers, or companions, Eumenes sided with the latter in his opinions, but in what he said he was a kind of common friend to both and held himself aloof from the quarrel, on the ground that it was no business of his, since he was a stranger, to meddle in disputes of Macedonians. Moreover, when the rest of the principal officers had withdrawn from Babylon, he remained behind in the city and mollified many of the men-at war and made them more disposed towards a settlement of the quarrel. 2 And when the officers, having conferred with one another, brought their first tumultuous proceedings to an end, and were distributing satrapies and commands, Eumenes received Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and the southern coast of the Euxine sea as far as Trapezus. It is true that at the time this territory was not subject to the Macedonians, for Ariarathes held royal sway over it; but Leonnatus and Antigonus, with a great army, were to conduct Eumenes thither and declare him satrap of the country.
[Eum. 3.3] 3 Now, Antigonus paid no heed to the edicts of Perdiccas, being already lifted up in his ambitions and scorning all his associates; but Leonnatus came down from the interior into Phrygia in order to undertake the expedition in behalf of Eumenes. Here, however, Hecataeus the tyrant of Cardia joined him and besought him to go rather to the assistance of Antipater and the Macedonians besieged in Lamia. Leonnatus therefore determined to cross over to Greece, invited Eumenes to go with him, and tried to reconcile him with Hecataeus. 4 For they had a hereditary distrust of one another arising from political differences; and frequently Eumenes had been known to denounce Hecataeus when a tyrant and to exhort Alexander to restore its freedom to Cardia. Therefore at this time also Eumenes declined to go on the expedition against the Greeks, saying he was afraid that Antipater, who had long hated him, would kill him to please Hecataeus. Then Leonnatus took him into his confidence and revealed to him all his purposes. 5 Assistance to Antipater, namely, was what he alleged as a pretext for his expedition, but he really meant, as soon as he had crossed into Europe, to lay claim to Macedonia; and he showed certain letters from Cleopatra in which she invited him to come to Pella and promised to marry him. But Eumenes, either because he was afraid of Antipater, or because he despaired of Leonnatus as a capricious man full of uncertain and rash impulses, took his own equipment and decamped by night. And he had three hundred horsemen, two hundred armed camp-followers, and in gold what would amount to five thousand talents of money. 6 With this equipment he fled to Perdiccas, and by telling him of the designs of Leonnatus at once enjoyed great influence with him and was made a member of his council. Moreover, a little while after he was conducted into Cappadocia with an army which Perdiccas commanded in person. There Ariarathes was taken prisoner, the country was brought into subjection, and Eumenes was proclaimed satrap. 7 He entrusted the cities of the country to his own friends, appointed commanders of garrisons, left behind him such judges and administrators as he wished, Perdiccas not at all interfering in these matters, and then marched away with Perdiccas, desiring to pay court to that general, and not wishing to be separated from the kings.
[Eum. 4.1] 4 1 However, Perdiccas felt confident of carrying out his projects by himself, and thought that the country they had left behind them needed an efficient and faithful guardian, and therefore sent Eumenes back from Cilicia, ostensibly to his own satrapy, but really to reduce to obedience the adjacent country of Armenia, which had been thrown into confusion by Neoptolemus. 2 Accordingly, although Neoptolemus was a victim of ostentation and empty pride, Eumenes tried to constrain him by personal intercourse; then, finding that the Macedonian men-at war were conceited and bold, he raised a force of cavalry as a counterpoise to them by offering the natives of the country who were able to serve as horsemen immunity from contributions and tributes, 3 and by distributing horses that he had bought among those of his followers in whom he placed most confidence; the spirits of these men, too, he incited by honours and gifts, and developed their bodies by exercise and discipline; so that a part of the Macedonians were amazed, a part emboldened, when they saw that in a short time he had assembled about him no fewer than sixty-three hundred horsemen.
[Eum. 5.1] 5 1 And when Craterus and Antipater, after overpowering the Greeks, were crossing into Asia to overthrow the power of Perdiccas, and were reported to be planning an invasion of Cappadocia, Perdiccas, who was himself heading an expedition against Ptolemy, appointed Eumenes commander of the forces in Armenia and Cappadocia with plenary powers. 2 He also sent letters on the subject, in which he commanded Alcetas and Neoptolemus to look to Eumenes for orders, and Eumenes to manage matters as he thought best. Alcetas, then, flatly refused to serve in the campaign, on the ground that the Macedonians under him were ashamed to fight Antipater, and were so well disposed to Craterus that they were ready to receive him with open arms. Neoptolemus, however, plotting treachery against Eumenes, was detected, and when he was summoned would not obey, but drew up his forces in battle array. 3 Here first did Eumenes reap the fruit of his forethought and preparation; for when his infantry had already been defeated, he routed Neoptolemus with his cavalry, and captured his baggage, and when the men-at war of Neoptolemus were scattered in pursuit of their enemies, charged upon them with his entire body of horse and compelled them to lay down their arms and make oath with him to serve under him.
[Eum. 5.4] 4 Neoptolemus, then, collected a few of his men from the rout and fled to Craterus and Antipater. But they had already sent an embassy to Eumenes inviting him to come over to their side; he would enjoy possession of his present satrapies, would receive additional troops and territory from them, would become a friend to Antipater instead of an enemy, and would not become an enemy to Craterus instead of a friend. 5 On hearing this proposition Eumenes replied that he had been Antipater’s enemy from of old and could not now become his friend, when he saw him treating his friends as enemies, but that he was ready to reconcile Craterus with Perdiccas and bring the two together on just and equal terms; if, however, either undertook to overreach the other he would give aid to the injured party as long as he had breath, and would rather lose his life than his honour.
[Eum. 6.1] 6 1 Craterus and Antipater, then, after getting this answer, were taking deliberate counsel about the whole situation, when Neoptolemus came to them after his flight, told them about the battle he had lost, and urged them to come to his aid, both of them if possible, but at any rate Craterus; for the Macedonians longed for him exceedingly, and if they should only see his cap and hear his voice, they would come to him with a rush, arms and all. 2 And indeed the name of Craterus was really great among them, and after the death of Alexander most of them had longed for him as their commander. They remembered that he had many times incurred the strong displeasure of Alexander himself in their behalf, by opposing his gradually increasing desire to adopt Persian customs, and by defending the manners of their country, which, thanks to the spread of luxury and pomp, were already being treated with contempt.
[Eum. 6.3] 3 At the time of which I speak, then, Craterus sent Antipater into Cilicia, while he himself with a large part of the forces advanced with Neoptolemus against Eumenes. He thought that he should fall upon him when he was off his guard, and when, after their recent victory, his soldiers were in revelry and disorder. Now, that Eumenes should learn beforehand of his approach and get himself ready for it in advance, one might consider a mark of sober generalship, though not of superlative ability; 4 but that he should keep his enemies from getting any knowledge that would work him harm, and, besides this, that he should hurl his soldiers upon Craterus before they knew with whom they were fighting, and conceal from them the name of the opposing general, seems to me to have been an exploit peculiar to this commander. He gave out word, then, that Neoptolemus was once more coming against him, with Pigres, and that they had a force of Paphlagonian and Cappadocian cavalry. One night he was planning to decamp and then fell asleep and had a strange vision. 5 He dreamed, namely, that he saw two Alexanders ready to give each other battle, each at the head of a phalanx; then Athena came to help the one, and Demeter the other, and after a fierce struggle the one who had Athena for a helper was beaten, and Demeter, culling ears of grain, wove them into a wreath for the victor.
[Eum. 6.6] 6 At once, then, he conjectured that the vision was in his favour, since he was fighting for a country that was most fertile and had at that time an abundance of fine young grain in the ear; for the land had everywhere been sown and bespoke a time of peace, now that its plains were covered with a luxuriant growth; and he was all the more strengthened in his belief when he learned that the enemy’s watchword was “Athena and Alexander.” Accordingly, he too gave out a watchword, namely, “Demeter and Alexander,” and ordered all his men to crown themselves and wreathe their arms with ears of grain. 7 But though he often felt an impulse to speak out and tell his principal officers who it was against whom their struggle was to be, and not to keep hidden away in his own breast alone a secret so important, nevertheless he abode by his first resolution and made his judgment surety for the peril.
[Eum. 7.1] 7 1 However, he arrayed against Craterus not a single Macedonian, but two troops of foreign horse commanded by Pharnabazus the son of Artabazus and Phoenix of Tenedos, who had strict orders to charge at full speed when the enemy came into view and engage them at close quarters, without giving them a chance to withdraw or say anything, and without receiving any herald they might send. For he had strong fears that his Macedonians, if they recognized Craterus, would go over to him. 2 He himself, with a division of his best horsemen, three hundred in number, rode along to the right wing, where he purposed to attack Neoptolemus. When the forces of Eumenes had crossed the intervening hill and were seen coming on to the attack with a swift and impetuous dash, Craterus was dumbfounded and heaped much abuse upon Neoptolemus for having deceived him about the Macedonians changing sides; but he exhorted his officers to act like brave men, and he charged upon the enemy.
[Eum. 7.3] 3 The first collision was severe, the spears were quickly shattered, and the fighting was done with the swords. Here Craterus did not disgrace Alexander, but slew many foes, and frequently routed the opposing arrays. At last, however, he was wounded by a Thracian who attacked him from the side, and fell from his horse. 4 As he lay prostrate there all his enemies rode past him, not knowing who he was, except Gorgias, one of the officers of Eumenes; he recognized him, dismounted from his horse, and stood guard over his body, for he was now in an evil plight and struggling with death. In the meantime Neoptolemus also was engaged with Eumenes. They had long hated one another with a deadly hatred, but in two onsets neither had caught sight of the other; in the third, however, they recognized each other, and at once drew their swords and with loud cries rode to the attack. 5 Their horses dashed together with the violence of colliding triremes, and dropping the reins they clutched one another with their hands, each trying to tear off the other’s helmet and strip the breastplate from his shoulders. While they were struggling, their horses ran from under them and they fell to the ground, where they closed with one another and wrestled for the mastery. 6 Then Eumenes, as Neoptolemus sought to rise first, gave him an undercut in the ham, and himself got to his feet before his adversary did; but Neoptolemus, supporting himself on one knee, and wounded in the other, defended himself vigorously from underneath. He could not, however, inflict fatal wounds, but was himself wounded in the neck, fell to the ground, and lay there prostrate. 7 His sword, however, he still retained, and while Eumenes, transported with rage and ancient hatred, was stripping off his armour and reviling him, Neoptolemus surprised him with a wound under the breastplate, where it reaches the groin. But the blow gave Eumenes more fright than harm, since lack of strength made it feeble.
[Eum. 7.8] After stripping the dead body, weak as he was from wounds received in legs and arms, Eumenes nevertheless had himself put upon his horse and hastened to the other wing, supposing that the enemy were still resisting. 8 But when he learned of the fate of Craterus and had ridden up to where he lay, and saw that he was still alive and conscious, he dismounted, wept bitterly, clasped his hand, and had many words of abuse for Neoptolemus, and many words of pity for Craterus in his evil fortune, and for himself in the necessity which had brought him into a conflict with a friend and comrade, where he must do or suffer this harm.
[Eum. 8.1] 8 1 This battle was won by Eumenes about ten days after the former. It lifted his reputation high, and he was thought to have accomplished his task alike with wisdom and bravery; but it got him much envy and hatred as well among his allies as among his enemies. They felt that he, an alien and a stranger, had used the arms and might of the Macedonians for slaying the foremost and most approved of them. 2 Now, if Perdiccas could have learned in time of the death of Craterus, no one else would have had chief place among Macedonians; but as it was, he was slain in a mutiny of his soldiers in Egypt two days before the report of the battle came to his camp, and his Macedonians, in a rage, at once condemned Eumenes to death. Moreover, Antigonus was appointed to conduct the war against him, in conjunction with Antipater.
[Eum. 8.3] 3 When Eumenes fell in with the royal herds of horse that were pasturing about Mount Ida, he took as many horses as he wanted and sent a written statement of the number to the overseers, at this, we are told, Antipater laughed and said that he admired Eumenes for his forethought, since he evidently expected to give an account of the royal properties to them, or to receive one from them. 4 Because he was superior in cavalry, Eumenes wished to give battle in the plains of Lydia about Sardis, and at the same time he was ambitious to make a display of his forces before Cleopatra; but at the request of that princess, who was afraid to give Antipater any cause for complaint, he marched away into upper Phrygia and wintered at Celaenae. Here Alcetas, Polemon, and Docimus strove emulously with him for the chief command, whereupon he said: “This bears out the saying, ‘Of perdition no account is made.’ “ 5 Moreover, having promised to give his soldiers their pay within three days, he sold them the homesteads and castles about the country, which were full of slaves and flocks. Then every captain in the phalanx or commander of mercenaries who had bought a place was supplied by Eumenes with implements and engines of war and took it by siege; and thus every soldier received the pay that was due him, in a distribution of the captured properties. 6 In consequence of this, Eumenes was again in high favour; and once when letters were found in his camp which the leaders of the enemy had caused to be scattered there, wherein they offered a hundred talents and honours to any one who should kill Eumenes, his Macedonians were highly incensed and made a decree that a thousand of the leading soldiers should serve him continually as a body-guard, watching over him when he went abroad and spending the night at his door. 7 These carried out the decree, and were delighted to receive from Eumenes such honours as kings bestow upon their friends. For he was empowered to distribute purple caps and military cloaks, and this was a special gift of royalty among Macedonians.
[Eum. 9.1] 9 1 Now, prosperity lifts even men of inferior natures to higher thoughts, so that they appear to be invested with a certain greatness and majesty as they look down from their lofty state; but the truly magnanimous and constant soul reveals itself rather in its behaviour under disasters and misfortunes. 2 And so it was with Eumenes. For, to begin with, he was defeated by Antigonus at Orcynii in Cappadocia through treachery, and yet, though in flight, he did not suffer the traitor to make his escape out of the rout to the enemy, but seized and hanged him. Then, taking the opposite route in his flight to that of his pursuers, he changed his course before they knew it, and, passing along by them, came to the place where the battle had been fought. Here he encamped, collected the bodies of the dead, and burned them on pyres made from the doors of the neighbouring villages, which he had split into billets. He burned the bodies of the officers on one pyre, those of the common soldiers on another, heaped great mounds of earth over the ashes, and departed, so that even Antigonus, when he came up later, admired his boldness and constancy.
[Eum. 9.3] 3 Again, when he came upon the baggage of Antigonus, and could easily have captured many freemen, many slaves, and wealth amassed from so many wars and plunderings, he was afraid that his men, if loaded down with booty and spoils, would become too heavy for flight, and too luxurious to endure wanderings and lapse of time. In lapse of time, however, he placed his chief hopes for ending the war, feeling that he could thus cause Antigonus to turn back. 4 But since it was quite a difficult matter to deflect his Macedonians from good things which were within their reach, he ordered them to refresh themselves and bait their horses before advancing upon the enemy. He himself, however, sent a secret message to Menander, who was in charge of the enemy’s baggage, implying that he was concerned for him as an old time friend and comrade, and advising him to be on his guard and withdraw as quickly as possible from his low-lying and accessible position to the foot-hills near by, which could not be reached by cavalry or surrounded. 5 Menander speedily comprehended his peril and decamped, and then Eumenes openly sent out scouts and ordered his soldiers to arm themselves and bridle their horses, as he was going to lead them against the enemy. But when the scouts brought word that Menander was altogether safe from capture now that he had taken refuge in a difficult region, Eumenes pretended to be vexed, and led his forces away. 6 And it is said that when Menander bore witness of these things to Antigonus, and the Macedonians began to praise Eumenes and felt more kindly towards him, because, when it was in his power to enslave their children and outrage their wives, he had spared them and let them go, Antigonus said: “Nay, my good men, that fellow did not let them go out of regard for you, but because he was afraid to put such fetters on himself in his flight.”
[Eum. 10.1] 10 1 After this, as he wandered about and sought to elude his enemies, Eumenes persuaded most of his soldiers to leave him, either out of regard for them, or because he was unwilling to trail after him a body of men too small to give battle, and too large to escape the enemy’s notice. Moreover, after he had taken refuge in Nora, a stronghold on the confines of Lycaonia and Cappadocia, with five hundred horsemen and two hundred men-at war, even there again, whatsoever friends asked to be dismissed because they could not endure the asperities of the place and the constraint in diet, all these he sent away, after bestowing upon them tokens of affection and kindness. 2 And when Antigonus came up and invited him to a conference before the siege began, he replied that the friends of Antigonus and officers to succeeded Antigonus in command were many, whereas those in whose behalf he was fighting had no one left to command them after him; and he bade Antigonus to send hostages if he wanted to have a conference with him. Moreover, when Antigonus demanded to be addressed by him as a superior, Eumenes replied: “I regard no man as my superior so long as I am master of my sword.” 3 Nevertheless, after Antigonus had sent his nephew Ptolemy into the fortress, as Eumenes had demanded, Eumenes went down to meet him, and they embraced one another with greetings of friendship and affection, since they had formerly been close associates and intimate companions. A long conference was held, in which Eumenes made no mention of his own safety or peace, but actually demanded that he should be confirmed in the possession of his satrapies, and that what was his by gift should be restored to him. At this the bystanders were amazed, and they admired his lofty spirit and confidence. 4 But meanwhile many of the Macedonians came running together in their eagerness to see what sort of man Eumenes was; for no one else had been so much talked about in the army since the death of Craterus. Then Antigonus, afraid that Eumenes might suffer some violence, first loudly forbade the soldiers to approach, and pelted with stones those who were hurrying up, but finally threw his arms about Eumenes and, keeping off the throng with his bodyguards, with much ado removed him to a place of safety.
[Eum. 11.1] 11 After this, Antigonus built a wall round Nora, left troops to guard it, and retired; Eumenes, however, although closely besieged in a stronghold which had grain, water in abundance, and salt, but no other edible, not even a relish to go with the grain, nevertheless, with what he had, managed to render the life of his associates cheerful, inviting them all by turns to his own table, and seasoning the meal thus shared with conversation which had charm and friendliness. 2 For he had a pleasant face, not like that of a war-worn veteran, but delicate and youthful, and all his body had, as it were, artistic proportions, with limbs of astonishing symmetry; and though he was not a powerful speaker, still he was insinuating and persuasive, as one may gather from his letters.
[Eum. 11.3] 3 But most of all detrimental to his forces thus besieged was their narrow quarters, since their movements were confined to small houses and a place only two furlongs in circumference, so that neither men nor horses could get exercise before eating or being fed. Therefore, wishing to remove the weakness and languor with which their inactivity afflicted them, and, more than that, to have them somehow or other in training for flight, if opportunity should offer, 4 he assigned the men a house, the largest in the place, fourteen cubits long, as a place to walk, ordering them little by little to increase their pace. And as for the horses, he had them all girt round the neck with great straps fastened to the roof, and raised them partly up into the air by means of pulleys, so, while with their hind legs they rested firmly upon the ground, they just touched it with the tips of their fore hoofs. 5 Then, while they were thus suspended, the grooms would stand at their sides and stir them up with shouts and strokes of the goad; and the horses, full of rage and fury, would dance and leap about on their hind legs, while with their swinging fore feet they would strike the ground and try to get a footing there, thus exerting their whole bodies and covering themselves with sweat and foam, — no bad exercise either for speed or strength. Then their barley would be thrown to them boiled, that they might the sooner dispatch and the better digest it.
[Eum. 12.1] 12 1 But presently, as the siege dragged along, Antigonus learned that Antipater had died in Macedonia, and that matters were in confusion owing to the dissension between Cassander and Polysperchon. He therefore cherished no longer an inferior hope, but embraced the whole empire in his scheme, and desired to have Eumenes as friend and helper in his undertakings. Accordingly, he sent Hieronymus to make a treaty with Eumenes, and proposed an oath for him to take. 2 This oath Eumenes corrected and then submitted it to the Macedonians who were besieging him, requesting them to decide which was the juster form. Antigonus, namely, for form’s sake, had mentioned the kings at the beginning of the oath, and then had made the rest of it refer to himself; but Eumenes wrote at the head of the oath the names of Olympias and the kings, and proposed to swear fealty, not to Antigonus alone, but also to Olympias and the kings, and to have the same enemies and friends as they. This was thought to be more just, and the Macedonians accordingly administered this oath of Eumenes, raised the siege, and sent to Antigonus, that he too, on his part, might take the oath to Eumenes.
[Eum. 12.3] 3 Meanwhile, however, Eumenes gave back all the Cappadocian hostages whom he was holding in Nora, and received from those who came for them horses, beasts of burden, and tents. He also collected all the soldiers who had become scattered by his flight and were now wandering about the country, so that he had a force of almost a thousand horsemen. With these he set out in flight, being rightly in fear of Antigonus. For Antigonus not only ordered his Macedonians to wall him in again and besiege him, but also wrote back bitter reproaches to them for accepting the correction of the oath.
[Eum. 13.1] 13 1 While Eumenes was in flight, letters were brought to him from those in Macedonia who feared the growing power of Antigonus. Olympias invited him to come and take charge of Alexander’s little son and rear him, feeling that plots were laid against his life; Polysperchon and Philip the king ordered him, as commander of the forces in Cappadocia, to wage war upon Antigonus, to take five hundred talents of the treasure at Quinda in reparation of his own losses, and to use as much of it as he wished for the war. 2 They had also written concerning these matters to Antigenes and Teutamus, the commanders of the Silver-shields. These men, on receiving their letters, ostensibly treated Eumenes with friendliness, but were plainly full of envy and contentiousness, disdaining to be second to him. Eumenes therefore allayed their envy by not taking the money, alleging that he had no need of it; 3 while upon their love of contention and love of command, seeing that they were as unable to lead as they were unwilling to follow, he brought superstition to bear.
[Eum. 13.4] He said, namely, that Alexander had appeared to him in a dream, had shown him a tent arrayed in royal fashion with a throne standing in it, and had then said that if they held their councils and transacted their business there, he himself would be present and would assist them in every plan and enterprise which they undertook in his name. Eumenes easily convinced Antigenes and Teutamus that this was true. They were unwilling to go to him, and he himself thought it undignified to be seen at the doors of others. 4 So they erected a royal tent, and a throne in it which they dedicated to Alexander, and there they met for deliberation on matters of highest importance.
[Eum. 13.5] And now, as they advanced into the interior of the country, Peucestas, who was a friend of Eumenes, met them with the other satraps, and they joined their forces, so that the number of their men and the splendour of their equipment raised the spirits of the Macedonians. But the leaders themselves had been made unmanageable by their exercise of power, and effeminate by their mode of life, after the death of Alexander, 5 and they brought into collision spirits that were tyrannical and fed on barbaric arrogance, so that they were harsh towards one another and hard to reconcile. Moreover, by flattering the Macedonian soldiery extravagantly and lavishing money upon them for banquets and sacrifices, in a short time they made the camp a hostelry of festal prodigality, and the army a mob to be cajoled into the election of its generals, as in a democracy. 6 Eumenes, however, perceiving that, while they despised one another, they feared him and were on the watch for an opportunity to kill him, pretended to be in need of money, and got together many talents by borrowing from those who hated him most, in order that they might put confidence in him and refrain from killing him out of regard for the money they had lent him. The consequence was that the wealth of others was his body-guard, and that, whereas men generally preserve their lives by giving, he alone won safety by receiving.
[Eum. 14.1] 14 1 The Macedonians, however, while there was no danger, continued to take gifts from their corrupters, and hung about the doors of these men, who now had body-guards and wanted to be generals. But when Antigonus encamped near them with a large force and the situation called aloud for a real general, not only did the common soldiers attach themselves to Eumenes, but also those who were great only when peace and luxury prevailed, every man of them, gave in to him and consented without a murmur to hold post which he gave them. 2 And, indeed, when Antigonus tried to cross the river Pasitigris, none of the other commanders who were watching his movements was even aware of it, but Eumenes, and he alone, withstood him, joined battle with him, slew many of his men and filled the stream with dead bodies, and took four thousand prisoners. But most of all in connection with the sickness that befell him did the Macedonians make it clear that they considered the others able to feast them splendidly and hold high festival, but him alone capable of wielding command and waging war, 3 For Peucestas, having feasted them splendidly in Persis, and having given every man a victim for sacrifice, was expecting to be chief in command; and a few days afterwards, as the soldiers were marching against the enemy, it chanced that Eumenes, in consequence of a dangerous illness, was being carried along in a litter outside the ranks, where it was quiet and his sleep would not be broken. But after they had advanced a little way, suddenly the enemy were seen passing over some hills and descending into the plain. 4 The gleams of their golden armour in the sun flashed down from the heights as they marched along in close formation, and on the backs of the elephants the towers and purple trappings were seen, which was their array when going into battle. Accordingly, the foremost Macedonians halted in their march and called with loud cries for Eumenes, declaring that they would not go forward unless he was in command of them; and grounding their arms they passed word to one another to wait, and to their leaders to keep still, and without Eumenes not to give battle or run any hazard even with the enemy. 5 When Eumenes heard of this, he quickened the pace of his bearers to a run and came to them, and lifting the curtains of his litter on either side, stretched forth his hand in delight. And when the soldiers saw him, they hailed him at once in their Macedonian speech, caught up their shields, beat upon them with their spears, and raised their battle-cry, challenging the enemy to fight in the assurance that their leader was at hand.
[Eum. 15.1] 15 1 Now Antigonus, hearing from his prisoners that Eumenes was sick and in such wretched plight as to be borne along in a litter, thought it no great task to crush the other commanders if Eumenes was sick. He therefore hastened to lead his army to battle. 2 But when, as the enemy were forming in battle order, he had ridden past their lines and observed their shape and disposition, he was amazed, and paused for some time; then the litter was seen as it was carried from one wing to the other. At this, Antigonus gave a loud laugh, as was his wont, and after saying to his friends, “This litter, it would seem, is what is arrayed against us,” immediately retired with his forces and pitched his camp.
[Eum. 15.3] 3 But the Macedonians opposed to him, after getting a little respite, once more acted like a capricious mob, and, mocking at their leaders, distributed themselves in winter quarters over almost the whole of Gabene, so that the rear was separated from the van by almost a thousand furlongs. When Antigonus became aware of this, he set out suddenly against them, taking this time a road that was difficult and without water, but direct and short, hoping that, in case he fell upon them when they were scattered about in their winter quarters, it would no longer be easy for the mass of them to join their generals. But after he had entered an uninhabited country, dire winds and severe frosts gave trouble to his army and impeded their march. 4 The only help, therefore, was to burn many fires, and this was what revealed his presence to the enemy. For the Barbarians living on the mountains which overlooked the uninhabited tract, amazed at the number of fires, sent messengers on dromedaries to Peucestas. And he, when he heard the news, being himself quite out of his mind with fear and seeing that the other officers were in a like state, set out to fly, after rousing up those of their soldiers especially who were quartered along the route. 5 But Eumenes tried to put a stop to their confusion and panic fear, by promising so to check the speed of the enemy that they would come up three days later than they were expected. And when his hearers were persuaded, he sent round messengers with orders that the forces in winter quarters and elsewhere should assemble with all speed; at the same time, too, he himself rode for with the other commanders, took possession of a place which could be seen at a distance by such as traversed the desert, measured it off, and ordered many fires to be made at intervals, as in an encampment. 6 This was done, and when Antigonus saw these fires on the mountains, he was distressed and disheartened, supposing that his enemies had long been aware of his approach and were coming to meet him. In order, therefore, that he might not be forced to fight, when his men were worn and weary from their march, against those who had spent a comfortable winter and were ready for the conflict, he forsook the direct road and led his army through villages and cities, taking time to refresh it. 7 But when no one tried to obstruct his progress, the thing which usually happens when enemies are facing one another, and when the people round about said they had seen no army, but that the place was full of lighted fires, Antigonus perceived that he had been outgeneraled by Eumenes, and in deep resentment led his forces forward to try the issue in open battle.
[Eum. 16.1] 16 1 But meanwhile most of the forces with Eumenes had assembled, and, admiring his sagacity, demanded that he should be sole commander. At this, Antigenes and Teutamus, the leaders of the Silver-shields, were filled with vexation and jealousy, so that they plotted against the life of Eumenes, and, assembling most of the satraps and generals, deliberated when and how they might put him out of the way. 2 They were unanimous in the decision to make every use of him in the ensuing battle, and after the battle to kill him at once. But Eudamus, the master of the elephants, and Phaedimus, secretly brought word to Eumenes of this decision; not that they were moved by any goodwill or kindness, but because they were anxious not to lose the money they had lent him. These men Eumenes commended, and then went off to his tent, where he said to his friends that he was living in a great herd of wild beasts. Then he made his will, and tore up and destroyed his papers; he did not wish that after his death, in consequence of the secrets contained in these documents, accusations and calumnies should be brought against his correspondents. 3 After this business had been finished, he deliberated whether to give over the victory to the enemy, or to take flight through Media and Armenia and invade Cappadocia. He came to no decision while his friends were with him, but after considering many expedients with a mind which was as versatile as his fortunes were changeable, he proceeded to draw up his forces, urging on the Greeks and the Barbarians, and himself exhorted by the phalanx and the Silver-shields to be of good courage, since, as they felt sure, the enemy would not withstand their attack. 4 And indeed they were the oldest soldiers of Philip and Alexander, war’s athletes as it were, without a defeat or a fall up to that time, many of them now seventy years old, and not a man younger than sixty. And so, when they charged upon the forces of Antigonus, they shouted; “It is against your fathers that ye sin, ye miscreants;” and falling upon them in a rage they crushed their whole phalanx at once, not a man withstanding them, and most of their opponents being cut to pieces at close quarters.
[Eum. 16.5] 5 At this point, then, Antigonus was defeated overwhelmingly, but with his cavalry he got the upper hand; for Peucestas fought in a way that was altogether lax and ignoble, and Antigonus captured all the baggage. He was a man who kept cool in the presence of danger, and he was aided by the ground. 6 For the plain where they fought was vast, and its soil was neither deep nor trodden hard, but sandy and full of a dry and saline substance, which, loosened up by the trampling of so many horses and men during the battle, issued forth in a dust like lime, and this made the air all white and obscured the vision. Therefore it was easy for Antigonus to capture the enemy’s baggage unobserved.
[Eum. 17.1] 17 1 After the battle was over, Teutamus at once sent an embassy to treat for the baggage. And when Antigonus promised not only to give this back to the Silver-shields but also to treat them kindly in other ways, the Silver-shields formed a dire design to put the man alive into the hands of his enemies. 2 So, to begin with, they drew near him, without awakening his suspicions, and kept him in ward, some making complaints about their baggage, others bidding him to be of good courage, since he was victorious, and others still denouncing their former commanders. Then they fell upon him, snatched their sword away from him, and tied his hands fast with his girdle. And when Nicanor had been sent by Antigonus to receive him and he was being led along through the Macedonians, he begged for leave to speak to them, not with a view to supplication or entreaty, but in order to set forth what was for their advantage.
[Eum. 17.3] 3 Silence was made, and standing on an eminence he stretched forth his hands, bound as they were, and said: “What trophy, O ye basest of Macedonians, could Antigonus have so much desired to set up over your defeat, as this which ye yourselves are now erecting by delivering up your general as a prisoner? It is not a dreadful thing, then, that in the hour of your victory ye should acknowledge yourselves defeated for the sake of your baggage, implying that victory lies in your possessions and not in your arms, but ye must also send your leader as a ransom for that baggage. 4 As for me, then, ye lead me away undefeated, a victor over my enemies, a victim of my fellow-soldiers; but as for you, by Zeus the god of armies and by the gods who hallow oaths, I bid you slay me here with your own hands. Even should I be slain yonder, it will be wholly your work. Nor will Antigonus find any fault; for he wants a dead and not a living Eumenes. And if ye would spare your own hands, one of mine, if released, will suffice to do the business. 5 And if ye cannot trust me with a sword, cast me under the feet of your elephants, all bound as I am. If ye do this, I will absolve you from your guilt towards me, holding that ye have shown yourselves most just and righteous in your dealings with your own general.”
[Eum. 18.1] 18 1 As Eumenes said this, the rest of the throng was overwhelmed with sorrow, and some wept, but the Silver-shields shouted to lead him along and pay no attention to his babbling; for it was not so dreadful a thing, they said, that a pest from the Chersonesus should come to grief for having harassed Macedonians with infinite wars, as that the best of the soldiers of Philip and Alexander, after all their toils, should in their old age be robbed of their rewards and get their support from others, and that their wives should be spending the third night now in the arms of their enemies. At the same time they led him along at a quickened pace.
[Eum. 18.2] 2 But Antigonus, fearing their multitude (since no one had been left behind in the camp), sent out ten of his strongest elephants and a great number of Median and Parthian spearmen to drive away the throng. He himself could not endure to see Eumenes, by reason of their former intimate friendship, and when those who had received him asked how they should guard his person, he said: “Just as ye would an elephant or a lion.” 3 But after a little while he became compassionate and ordered the keepers to remove the prisoner’s heavy fetters and admit one of his personal servants to anoint him, and permitted any one of his friends who wished to spend the day with him and bring what he needed. Then he deliberated many days what to do with him, and considered various arguments and suggestions, Demetrius his son and Nearchus the Cretan being eager to save the life of Eumenes, while the rest, almost all of them, were insistent in urging that he be put to death.
[Eum. 18.4] 4 We are told, also, that Eumenes asked his keeper, Onomarchus, why in the world Antigonus, now that he had got a hated enemy in his hands, neither killed him speedily nor generously set him free; and when Onomarchus insolently told him it was not now, but on the field of battle, that he should have faced death boldly, “Yea, by Zeus,” said Eumenes, “then, too, I did do; ask the men who fought with me; I know that none I met was a better man.” “Well, then, “ said Onomarchus, “since now thou hast found thy better, why canst thou not bide his time?”
[Eum. 19.1] 19 1 When, then, Antigonus had decided to kill Eumenes, he gave orders to deprive him of food. And so, after two or three days of fasting, the prisoner began to draw nigh his end. But camp was suddenly broken and a man was sent to dispatch him. His body, however, was delivered to his friends by Antigonus, who permitted them to burn it and collect the ashes and place them in a silver urn, that they might be returned to his wife and children.
[Eum. 19.2] 2 Eumenes thus slain, on no other man than Antigonus did Heaven devolve the punishment of the soldiers and commanders who betrayed him, but he himself, regarding the Silver-shields as impious and bestial men, put them into the violence of Sibyrtius the governor of Arachosia, ordering him to wear them out and destroy them in every possible way, that not a man of them might ever return to Macedonia or behold the Grecian sea.

## Sertorius

[Sert. 1.1] 1 1 IT is perhaps not to be wondered at, since fortune is ever changing her course and time is infinite, that the same incidents should occur many times, spontaneously. For, if the multitude of elements is unlimited, fortune has in the abundance of her material an ample provider of coincidences; and if, on the other hand, there is a limited number of elements from which events are interwoven, the same things must happen many times, being brought to pass by the same agencies. 2 Now, there are some who delight to collect, from reading and hearsay, such accidental happenings as look like works of calculation and forethought. They note, for example, that there were two celebrated persons called Attis, one a Syrian, the other an Arcadian, and that both were killed by a wild boar; that there were two Actaeons, one of whom was torn in pieces by his dogs, the other by his lovers; that there were two Scipios, by one of whom the Carthaginians were conquered in an earlier war, and by the other, in a later war, were destroyed root and branch; 3 that Ilium was taken by Heracles on account of the horses of Laomedon, by Agamemnon by means of what is called the wooden horse, and a third time by Charidemus, because a horse fell in the gateway and prevented the Ilians from closing the gate quickly enough; that there are two cities which have the same name as the most fragrant plants, Ios and Smyrna, in one of which the poet Homer is said to have been born, and in the other to have died. 4 I will therefore make this addition to their collection. The most warlike of generals, and those who achieved most by a mixture of craft and ability, have been one-eyed men, — Philip, Antigonus, Hannibal, and the subject of this Life, Sertorius; of whom one might say that he was more continent with women than Philip, more faithful to his friends than Antigonus, 5 more merciful towards his enemies than Hannibal, and inferior to none of them in understanding, though in fortune to them all. Fortune he ever found harder to deal with than his open foes, and yet he made himself equal to the experience of Metellus, the daring of Pompey, the fortune of Sulla, and the power in Rome, though he was an exile and a stranger in command of Barbarians.
[Sert. 1.6] 6 With him we may best compare, among the Greeks, Eumenes of Cardia. Both were born to command and given to wars of stratagem; both were exiled from their own countries, commanded foreign soldiers, and in their deaths experienced a fortune that was harsh and unjust; for both were the victims of plots, and were slain by the very men with whom they were conquering their foes.
[Sert. 2.1] 2 1 Quintus Sertorius belonged to a family of some prominence in Nussa, a city of the Sabines. Having lost his father, he was properly reared by a widowed mother, of whom he appears to have been excessively fond. His mother’s name, we are told, was Rhea. As a result of his training he was sufficiently versed in judicial procedure, and acquired some influence also at Rome from his eloquence, although a mere youth; but his brilliant successes in war turned his ambition in this direction.
[Sert. 3.1] 3 1 To begin with, when the Cimbri and Teutones invaded Gaul, he served under Caepio, and after the Romans had been defeated and put to flight, though he had lost his horse and had been wounded in the body, he made his way across the Rhone, swimming, shield and breastplate and all, against a strongly adverse current; so sturdy was his body and so inured to hardships by training. 2 In the next place, when the same enemies were coming up with many myriads of men and dreadful threats, so that for a Roman even to hold his post at such a time and obey his general was a great matter, while Marius was in command, Sertorius undertook to spy out the enemy. So, putting on a Celtic dress and acquiring the commonest expressions of that language for such conversation as might be necessary, he mingled with the Barbarians; and after seeing or hearing what was of importance, he came back to Marius. 3 At the time, then, he received a prize for valour; and since, during the rest of the campaign, he performed many deeds which showed both judgement and daring, he was advanced by his general to positions of honour and trust. After the war with the Cimbri and Teutones, he was sent out as military tribune by Didius the praetor to Spain, and spent the winter in Castulo, a city of the Celtiberians. 4 Here the soldiers shook off all discipline in the midst of plenty, and were drunk most of the time, so that the Barbarians came to despise them, and one night sent for aid from their neighbours, the Oritanians, and falling upon the Romans in their quarters began to kill them. But Sertorius with a few others slipped out, and assembled the soldiers who were making their escape, and surrounded the city. He found the gate by which the Barbarians had stolen in, but did not repeat their mistake; instead, he set a guard there, and then, taking possession of all quarters of the city, slew all the men who were of age to bear arms. 5 Then, when the slaughter was ended, he ordered all his soldiers to lay aside their own armour and clothing, to array themselves in those of the Barbarians, and then to follow him to the city from which the men came who had fallen upon them in the night. Having thus deceived the Barbarians by means of the armour which they saw, he found the gate of the city open, and caught a multitude of men who supposed they were coming forth to meet a successful party of friends and fellow citizens. Therefore most of the inhabitants were slaughtered by the Romans at the gate; the rest surrendered and were sold into slavery.
[Sert. 4.1] 4 1 In consequence of this exploit the name of Sertorius was noised abroad in Spain; and as soon as he returned to Rome he was appointed quaestor of Cisalpine Gaul, and at a critical time. For the Marsic war was threatening, and he was ordered to levy troops and procure arms; to which task he brought such earnestness and celerity, as compared with the slowness and indolence of the other young men, that he got the reputation of a man whose life would be one of great achievement. 2 However, he did not remit the activities of a daring soldier after he had advanced to the dignity of a commander, but displayed astonishing deeds of prowess and exposed his person unsparingly in battle, in consequence of which he got a blow that cost him one of his eyes. But on this he actually prided himself at all times. Others, he said, could not always carry about with them the evidences of their brave deeds, but must lay aside their necklaces, spears, and wreaths; in his own case, on the contrary, the marks of his bravery remained with him, and when men saw what he had lost, they saw at the same time a proof of his valour. 3 The people also paid him fitting honours. For, when he came into the theatre, they received him with clapping of hands and shouts of welcome, testimonials which even those who were far advanced in years and honours could not easily obtain. Notwithstanding this, when he stood for the tribuneship, Sulla formed a party against him, and he lost the election; for which reason, apparently, he became an opponent of Sulla. 4 And so when Marius was overwhelmed by Sulla and went into exile, and Sulla had set out to wage war against Mithridates, and one of the consuls, Octavius, adhered to the party of Sulla, while the other, Cinna, who aimed at a revolution, tried to revive the drooping faction of Marius, Sertorius attached himself to Cinna, especially as he saw that Octavius was rather sluggish himself and distrustful of the friends of Marius. 5 A great battle was fought in the forum between the consuls, in which Octavius was victorious, and Cinna and Sertorius took to flight, after losing almost ten thousand men; and then, winning over to their side most of the troops still scattered about Italy, they soon made themselves able to cope with Octavius.
[Sert. 5.1] 5 1 And when Marius sailed home from Libya and was proposing to serve under Cinna as a private citizen under a consul, the rest thought that his offer should be accepted, but Sertorius declared against it, either because he thought that Cinna would pay less attention to him when a man of greater military experience was at hand, or because he was afraid of the harshness of Marius, and feared that he would throw everything into confusion by a passion which knew no limits, and exceed the bounds of justice in the hour of victory. 2 Accordingly, he said that little remained for them to do, now that they were already victorious, and that if they received Marius he would appropriate to himself all the glory and the power, since he found it hard to share authority and was not to be trusted. Cinna replied that these considerations of Sertorius were sound, but that for his part he had perplexing scruples about rejecting Marius after having himself invited him to join their cause. To this Sertorius answered: 3 “Indeed, I for my part thought that Marius was come of his own accord into Italy, and so I was trying to discover what was advantageous in the matter; but in thy case it was not well to deliberate at all after the arrival of one whom thou thyself didst ask to come; nay, thou shouldst have received and employed him, since a pledge leaves room for no discussion.” So Cinna sent for Marius, the army was divided into three parts, and the three men held command.
[Sert. 5.4] 4 When the war had been brought to an end, Cinna and Marius were filled with insolence and all bitterness, and made the evils of war appear as gold to the Romans; Sertorius alone, as we are told, neither killed any one to gratify his anger, nor waxed insolent with victory, but actually rebuked Marius, and by private interviews and entreaties made Cinna more moderate. 5 And finally, there were the slaves whom Marius had used as allies during the war and as body-guards of his tyranny. They had thus become powerful and rich, partly by the permission and under the orders of Marius, and partly through their lawless and violent treatment of their masters, whom they would slay, and then lie with their masters’ wives, and outrage their masters’ children. Such a state of things Sertorius felt to be unendurable, and therefore when the slaves were all encamped together he had them shot down with javelins, and they were as many as four thousand in number.
[Sert. 6.1] 6 1 But presently Marius died; and shortly afterwards Cinna was murdered; and the younger Marius, against the wishes of Sertorius and contrary to the laws, assumed the consulship; and such men as Carbo, Norbanus, and Scipio were unsuccessfully opposing Sulla’s advance upon Rome; and the cause of the popular party was being ruined and lost, partly through the cowardice and weakness of its generals, and partly by treachery; 2 and there was no reason why Sertorius should remain to see matters go from bad to worse owing to the inferior judgement of those who had superior power. And finally, Sulla encamped near Scipio made friendly overtures, assuming that peace was to be made, and proceeded to corrupt his army. Sertorius warned Scipio of this plainly, but could not persuade him. At last, therefore, altogether despairing of the city, he set out for Spain, in order that, in case he should succeed in firmly establishing his power there, he might afford a refuge to those of his friends who were worsted at Rome.
[Sert. 6.3] 3 After encountering grievous storms in mountainous regions, he was asked by the Barbarians to pay them tribute and purchase his passage. His companions were indignant, and considered it a terrible thing for a Roman pro-consul to render tribute to pestilent Barbarians; but Sertorius made light of what they thought a disgrace, and with the remark that he was purchasing time, than which nothing is more precious to a man bent on great achievements, he pacified the Barbarians with money, and then hastened on and took possession of Spain. 4 He found its peoples strong in numbers and in fighting men, and since the rapacity and insolence of the Roman officials sent thither from time to time had made them hostile to the empire in all its aspects, he tried to win them over, the chiefs by his personal intercourse with them, the masses by a remission of taxes. His greatest popularity, however, was won by ridding them of the necessity for furnishing quarters for soldiers; for he compelled his soldiers to build their winter-quarters in the suburbs of the cities, and he himself was first to pitch his tent there. 5 However, he did not rely wholly on the goodwill of the Barbarians, but he armed all the Roman settlers of the country who were of military age, and by undertaking the construction of all sorts of engines of war and the building of triremes, kept the cities well in hand, being mild in the affairs of peace, but showing himself formidable by the preparations which he made against his enemies.
[Sert. 7.1] 7 1 When he learned that Sulla was master of Rome, and that the party of Marius and Carbo was on the way to ruin, he expected that an army with a commander would come at once to fight the issue out with him. He therefore sent Julius Salinator with six thousand men-at arms to bar the passage of the Pyrenees. And not long afterwards Caius Annius was sent out by Sulla, and seeing that Julius could not be assailed, he knew not what to do, and sat idly down at the base of the mountains. 2 But a certain Calpurnius, surnamed Lanarius, treacherously killed Julius, whose soldiers abandoned the heights of the Pyrenees; whereupon Annius crossed over and advanced with a large force, routing all opposition. Sertorius, not being able to cope with him, took refuge with three thousand men in New Carthage; there he embarked his forces, crossed the sea, and landed in the country of the Maurusii, in Africa. 3 But while his soldiers were getting water and were off their guard, the Barbarians fell upon them, and after losing many men, Sertorius sailed back again to Spain. From this shore too he was repulsed, but after being joined by some Cilician piratical vessels he attacked the island of Pityussa, overpowered the guard which Annius had set there, and effected a landing. After a short time, however, Annius came with numerous ships and five thousand men-at arms, and with him Sertorius attempted to fight a decisive naval battle, although the vessels which he had were light and built for speed rather than for fighting. 4 But the sea ran high with a strong west wind, and the greater part of the vessels of Sertorius, owing to their lightness, were driven aslant upon the rocky shore, while he himself, with a few ships, excluded from the open sea by the storm, and from the land by the enemy, was tossed about for ten days in a battle with adverse waves and fierce surges, and with difficulty held his own.
[Sert. 8.1] 8 1 But the wind subsided and he was borne along to certain scattered and waterless islands, where he spent the night; then, setting out from there, and passing through the strait of Cadiz, he kept the outer coast of Spain on the right and landed a little above the mouths of the river Baetis, which empties into the Atlantic sea and has given its name to the adjacent parts of Spain.
[Sert. 8.2] 2 Here he fell in with some sailors who had recently come back from the Atlantic Islands. These are two in number, separated by a very narrow strait; they are ten thousand furlongs distant from Africa, and are called the Islands of the Blest. They enjoy moderate rains at long intervals, and winds which for the most part are soft and precipitate dews, so that the islands not only have a rich soil which is excellent for plowing and planting, but also produce a natural fruit that is plentiful and wholesome enough to feed, without toil or trouble, a leisured folk. 3 Moreover, an air that is salubrious, owing to the climate and the moderate changes in the seasons, prevails on the islands. For the north and east winds which blow out from our part of the world plunge into fathomless space, and, owing to the distance, dissipate themselves and lose their power before they reach the islands; while the south and west winds that envelope the islands sometimes bring in their train soft and intermittent showers, but for the most part cool them with moist breezes and gently nourish the soil. Therefore a firm belief has made its way, even to the Barbarians, that here is the Elysian Field and the abode of the blessed, of which Homer sang.
[Sert. 9.1] 9 1 When Sertorius heard this tale, he was seized with an amazing desire to dwell in the islands and live in quiet, freed from tyranny and wars that would never end. The Cilicians, however, who did not want peace or leisure, but wealth and spoils, when they were aware of his desire, sailed away to Africa, to restore Ascalis the son of Iphtha to the throne of Maurusia. 2 Nevertheless Sertorius did not despair, but resolved to go to the aid of those who were fighting against Ascalis, in order that his followers might get some fresh ground for hope and occasion for new enterprise, and so might remain together in spite of their difficulties. The Maurusians were glad to have him come, and he set himself to work, defeated Ascalis in battle, and laid siege to him. 3 Moreover, when Sulla sent out Paccianus with an army to give aid to Ascalis, Sertorius joined battle with Paccianus and slew him, won over his soldiers after their defeat, and forced to a surrender the city of Tingis, into which Ascalis and his brethren had fled for refuge.
[Sert. 9.4] In this city the Libyans say that Antaeus is buried; and Sertorius had his tomb dug open, the great size of which made him disbelieve the Barbarians. But when he came upon the body and found it to be sixty cubits long, as they tell us, he was dumbfounded, and after performing a sacrifice filled up the tomb again, and joined in magnifying its traditions and honours. 4 Now, the people of Tingis have a myth that after the death of Antaeus, his wife, Tinga, consorted with Heracles, and that Sophax was the fruit of this union, who became king of the country and named a city which he founded after his mother; also that Sophax had a son, Diodorus, to whom many of the Libyan peoples became subject, since he had a Greek army composed of the Olbians and Mycenaeans who were settled in those parts by Heracles. 5 But this tale must be ascribed to a desire to gratify Juba, of all kings the most devoted to historical enquiry; for his ancestors are said to have been descendants of Sophax and Diodorus.
[Sert. 9.4b] Sertorius, then, having made himself master of the whole country, did no wrong to those who were his suppliants and put their trust in him, but restored to them both property and cities and government, receiving only what was right and fair in free gifts from them.
[Sert. 10.1] 10 1 As he was deliberating whither to turn his efforts next, the Lusitanians sent ambassadors and invited him to be their leader. They were altogether lacking in a commander of great reputation and experience as they faced the terror of the Roman arms, and they entrusted themselves to him, and to him alone, when they learned about his character from those who had been with him. 2 And it is said that Sertorius was no easy victim either of pleasure or of fear, but that he was naturally unterrified in the face of danger, and bore prosperity with moderation; in straightforward fighting he was as bold as any commander of his time, while in all military activities demanding stealth and the power to seize an advantage in securing strong positions or in crossing rivers, where speed, deceit, and, if necessary, falsehood are required, he was an expert of the highest ability. 3 Moreover, while he showed himself generous in rewarding deeds of valour, he used moderation in punishing transgressions. And yet, in the last part of his life, the savage and vindictive treatment which he bestowed upon his hostages would seem to show that his mildness was not natural to him, but was worn as a garment, from calculation, as necessity required. 4 In my opinion, however, a virtue that is sincere and based upon reason can never by any fortune be converted into its opposite, although it is true that excellent principles and natures, when impaired by great and undeserved calamities, may possibly change their character as the guiding genius changes. And this, I think, was the case with Sertorius when fortune at last began to forsake him; as his cause grew hopeless he became harsh toward those who did him wrong.
[Sert. 11.1] 11 However, at the time of which I speak he set out from Africa on the invitation of the Lusitanians. These he proceeded to organize at once, acting as their general with full powers, and he brought the neighbouring parts of Spain into subjection. Most of the people joined him of their own accord, owing chiefly to his mildness and efficiency; but sometimes he also betook himself to cunning devices of his own for deceiving and charming them. The chief one of these, certainly, was the device of the doe, which was as follows.
[Sert. 11.2] 2 Spanus, a plebeian who lived in the country, came upon a doe which had newly yeaned and was trying to escape the hunters. The mother he could not overtake, but the fawn — and he was struck with its unusual colour, for it was entirely white — he pursued and caught. And since, as it chanced, Sertorius had taken up his quarters in that region, and gladly received everything in the way of game or produce that was brought him as a gift, and made kindly returns to those who did him such favours, Spanus brought the fawn and gave it to him. 3 Sertorius accepted it, and at the moment felt only the ordinary pleasure in a gift; but in time, after he had made the animal so tame and gentle that it obeyed his call, accompanied him on his walks, and did not mind the crowds and all the uproar of camp life, he gradually tried to give the doe a religious importance by declaring that she was a gift of Diana, and solemnly alleged that she revealed many hidden things to him, knowing that the Barbarians were naturally an easy prey to superstition. 4 He also added such devices as these. Whenever he had secret intelligence that the enemy had made an incursion into the territory which he commanded, or were trying to bring a city to revolt from him, he would pretend that the doe had conversed with him in his dreams, bidding him hold his forces in readiness. Again, when he got tidings of some victory won by his generals, he would hide the messenger, and bring forth the doe wearing garlands for the receipt of glad tidings, exhorting his men to be of good cheer and to sacrifice to the gods, assured that they were to learn of some good fortune.
[Sert. 12.1] 12 1 By these devices he made the people tractable, and so found them more serviceable for all his plans; they believed that they were led, not by the mortal wisdom of a foreigner, but by a god. At the same time events also brought witness to this belief by reason of the extraordinary growth of the power of Sertorius. 2 For with the twenty-six hundred men whom he called Romans, and a motley band of seven hundred Libyans who crossed over into Lusitania with him, to whom he added four thousand Lusitanian targeteers and seven hundred horsemen, he waged war with four Roman generals, under whom were a hundred and twenty thousand footmen, six thousand horsemen, two thousand bowmen and slingers, and an untold number of cities, while he himself had at first only twenty all told. 3 But nevertheless, from so weak and slender a beginning, he not only subdued great nations and took many cities, but was also victorious over the generals sent against him: Cotta he defeated in a sea-fight in the straits near Mellaria; Fufidius, the governor of Baetica, he routed on the banks of the Baetis with the slaughter of two thousand Roman soldiers; Lucius Domitius, who was pro-consul of the other Spain, was defeated at the hands of his quaestor; 4 Thoranius, another of the commanders sent out by Metellus with an army, he slew; and on Metellus himself, the greatest Roman of the time and held in highest repute, he inflicted many defeats and reduced him to so great straits that Lucius Manlius came from Gallia Narbonensis to help him, and Pompey the Great was hurriedly dispatched from Rome with an army.
[Sert. 12.5] 5 For Metellus was at his wits’ end. He was carrying on war with a man of daring who evaded every kind of open fighting, and who made all manner of shifts and changes, owing to the light equipment and agility of his Iberian soldiers; whereas he himself had been trained in regular contests of heavy-armed troops, and was wont to command a ponderous and immobile phalanx, which, for repelling and overpowering an enemy at close quarters, was most excellently trained, but for climbing mountains, for dealing with the incessant pursuits and flights of men as light as the winds, and for enduring hunger and a life without fire or tent, as their enemies did, it was worthless.
[Sert. 13.1] 13 1 Besides this, Metellus was now getting on in years, and was somewhat inclined also, by this time, to an easy and luxurious mode of life after his many and great contests; whereas his opponent, Sertorius, was full of mature vigour, and had a body which was wonderfully constituted for strength, speed, and plain living. 2 For in excessive drinking he would not indulge even in his hours of ease, and he was wont to endure great toils, long marches, and continuous wakefulness, content with meagre and indifferent food; moreover, since he was also wandering about or hunting when he had leisure for it, he obtained an acquaintance with every way of escape for a fugitive, or of surrounding an enemy under pursuit, in places both accessible and inaccessible. The result was, therefore, that Metellus, by being kept from fighting, suffered all the harm which visits men who are defeated; while Sertorius, by flying, had the advantages of men who pursue. 3 For he would cut off his opponent’s supply of water and prevent his foraging; if the Romans advanced, he would get out of their way, and if they settled down in camp, he would harass them; if they besieged a place, he would come up and put them under siege in their turn by depriving them of supplies.
[Sert. 13.3] At last the Roman soldiers were in despair, and when Sertorius challenged Metellus to single combat, they cried aloud and bade him fight, general with general, and Roman with Roman, and when he declined, they mocked at him. 4 But Metellus laughed at all this, and he was right; for a general, as Theophrastus says, should die the death of a general, not that of a common targeteer. Then, seeing that the Langobritae were giving no slight assistance to Sertorius, and that their city could easily be taken for lack of water (since they had but one well in the city, and the streams in the suburbs and along the walls would be in the power of any besieger), Metellus came out against the city, intending to complete the siege in two days, since there was no water there. On this account, too, he had given orders to his soldiers to take along provisions of only five days. 5 But Sertorius quickly came to the rescue and ordered two thousand skins to be filled with water, offering for each skin a considerable sum of money.
[Sert. 13.6] Many Iberians and many Maurusians volunteered for the work, and after selecting men who were both sturdy and swift of foot, he sent them by a route through the mountains, with orders that when they had delivered the skins to the people in the city, they should secretly convey away the unserviceable mass of the population, in order that the water might suffice for the actual defenders of the city. When Metellus learned that this had been done, he was annoyed, since his soldiers had already consumed their provisions, and sent out Aquinus, at the head of six thousand men, to forage. But Sertorius learned of this and set an ambush of three thousand men in the road by which Aquinus was to return. These sallied forth from a shady ravine and attacked Aquinus in the rear, while Sertorius himself assailed him in front, routed him, slew some of his men, and took some of them prisoners. Aquinus, after losing both his armour and his horse, got back to Metellus, who then retired disgracefully, much flouted by the Iberians.
[Sert. 14.1] 14 1 In consequence of these successes Sertorius was admired and loved by the Barbarians, and especially because by introducing Roman arms and formations and signals he did away with their frenzied and furious displays of courage, and converted their forces into an army, instead of a huge band of robbers. 2 Still further, he used gold and silver without stint for the decoration of their helmets and the ornamentation of their shields, and by teaching them to wear flowered cloaks and tunics, and furnishing them with the means to do this, and sharing their love of beautiful array, he won the hearts of all. But most of all were they captivated by what he did with their boys. Those of the highest birth, namely, he collected together from various peoples, at Osca, a large city, and set over them teachers of Greek and Roman learning; thus in reality he made hostages of them, while ostensibly he was educating them, with the assurance that when they became men he would give them a share in administration and authority. 3 So the fathers were wonderfully pleased to see their sons, in purple-bordered togas, very decorously going to their schools, and Sertorius paying their fees for them, holding frequent examinations, distributing prizes to the deserving, and presenting them with the golden necklaces which the Romans call “bullae”. 4 It was the custom among the Iberians for those who were stationed about their leader to die with him if he fell, and the Barbarians in those parts call this a “consecration.” Now, the other commanders had few such shield-bearers and companions, but Sertorius was attended by many thousands of men who had thus consecrated themselves to death. 5 And we are told that when his army had been defeated at a certain city and the enemy were pressing upon them, the Iberians, careless of themselves, rescued Sertorius, and taking him on their shoulders one after another, carried him to the walls, and only when their leader was in safety, did they betake themselves to flight, each man for himself.
[Sert. 15.1] 15 1 And not only were the Iberians eager to serve under him, but also the soldiers who came from Italy. At any rate, when Perpenna Vento, who belonged to the same party as Sertorius, came to Spain with much money and a large force, and was determined to wage war on his own account against Metellus, his soldiers were displeased, and there was much talk in the camp about Sertorius, to the annoyance of Perpenna, who was puffed up over his high birth and his wealth. 2 However, when word came that Pompey was crossing the Pyrenees, the soldiers caught up their arms and snatched up their standards and made an outcry against Perpenna, ordering him to lead them to Sertorius, and threatening, if he did not, to abandon him and go by themselves to a man who was able to save himself and save those under him. So Perpenna yielded and led them off, and joined Sertorius with fifty-three cohorts.
[Sert. 16.1] 16 1 Sertorius, then, since all the peoples within the river Ebro were unitedly taking up his cause, had an army of great numbers, for men were all the whole coming to him in streams from every quarter; but he was troubled by their barbaric lack of discipline and their overconfidence, since they called loudly upon him to attack the enemy and were impatient at his delay, and he therefore tried to pacify them by arguments. 2 But when he saw that they were impatient and inclined to force their wishes upon him unseasonably, he let them take their way and permitted them to have an engagement with the enemy in which he hoped that they would not be altogether crushed, but would be severely handled, and so made more obedient for the future. Matters turning out as he expected, he came to their aid, gave them refuge in their flight, and brought them safely back to their camp. 3 And now he wished to take away their dejection. So after a few days he called a general assembly and introduced before it two horses, one utterly weak and already quite old, the other large-sized and strong, with a tail that was astonishing for the thickness and beauty of its hair. By the side of the feeble horse stood a man who was tall and robust, and by the side of the powerful horse another man, small and of a contemptible appearance. At a signal given them, the strong man seized the tail of his horse with both hands and tried to pull it towards him with all his might, as though he would tear it off; but the weak man began to pluck out the hairs in the tail of the strong horse one by one. 4 The strong man gave himself no end of trouble to no purpose, made the spectators laugh a good deal, and then gave up his attempt; but the weak man, in a trice and with no trouble, stripped his horse’s tail of its hair. Then Sertorius rose up and said: “Ye see, men of my allies, that perseverance is more efficacious than violence, and that many things which cannot be mastered when they stand together yield when one masters them little by little. 5 For irresistible is the force of continuity, by virtue of which advancing Time subdues and captures every power; and Time is a kindly ally for all who act as diligent attendants upon opportunity, but a most bitter enemy for all who urge matters on unseasonably.” By contriving from time to time such exhortations for the Barbarians, Sertorius taught them to watch for their opportunities.
[Sert. 17.1] 17 1 But of all his military exploits that which he performed in dealing with the people called Characitani is admired as much as any. They are a people beyond the river Tagonius, and they do not dwell in cities or villages, but on a large and lofty hill containing caves and hollows in the cliffs which look towards the north. The whole country at the base of the hill abounds in white clay and a soil that is porous and crumbly; it is not firm enough to bear the tread of man, and spreads far about if only slightly stirred, like unslaked lime or ashes. 2 These Barbarians, then, whenever they were afraid of war, would hide themselves in their caves, take all their plunder in with them, and keep quiet, for they could not be taken by force; and at the time of which I speak, when Sertorius had retired before Metellus and encamped at the base of their hill, they thought scornfully of him as a vanquished man, and he, either out of anger, or because he did not wish to be thought a fugitive, at break of day rode up to the place and inspected it. 3 There was no attacking it anywhere, but as he was wandering about to no purpose and indulging in empty threats, he saw that dust from the soil which I have described was being carried up against the Barbarians in great quantities by the wind.
[Sert. 17.4] For the caves, as I have said, faced the north, and the wind which blows from that quarter (some call it Caecias) is the most prevalent and the strongest of the winds in that country, being a confluent of winds from watery plains and snow-covered mountains; and at this time particularly, which was the height of summer, it was strong, was fed by the melting snows of northern regions, and blew most delightfully with continual refreshment for man and beast all day. 4 So, reflecting on these things and getting information about them from the natives of the country, Sertorius ordered his soldiers to take some of the loose and ashy soil that I have described, carry it directly opposite the hill, and make a heap of it there. This the Barbarians conjectured to be a mound raised for assaulting them, and jeered at their enemy. 5 On that day, then, the soldiers of Sertorius worked until night, and were then led back to camp.
[Sert. 17.6] But when the next day came, at first a gentle breeze arose, stirring up the lightest portions of the gathered soil and scattering them like chaff; then, when Caecias was blowing strong with the mounting of the sun and covering the hills with dust, the soldiers came and stirred up the mound of earth to the bottom and broke up the lumps, while some actually drove their horses back and forth through it, throwing up the loosened earth and giving it to the wind to carry. 6 Then the wind caught up all the earth thus broken and stirred and threw it up against the dwellings of the Barbarians, which opened so as to admit Caecias. And the Barbarians, since their caves had no other inlet for air than that against which the wind was dashing, were quickly blinded, and quickly choked, too, as they tried of inhale an air that was harsh and mingled with great quantities of dust. 7 Therefore, after holding out with difficulty for two days, on the third day they surrendered, thereby adding not so much to the power as to the fame of Sertorius, since by his skill he had subdued what could not be taken by arms.
[Sert. 18.1] 18 1 Well, then, as long as he carried on the war with Metellus as his antagonist, he was thought to be successful for the most part because, owing to great age and natural slowness, Metellus could not cope with a man who was bold and headed a force composed of robbers rather than soldiers; but when Pompey also crossed the Pyrenees and became his antagonist, and each of them had offered and accepted every test of a general’s powers, and Sertorius had the advantage in counter-planning and watchfulness, then indeed it was noised abroad as far as Rome that he was the ablest general of his time in the conduct of a war. 2 For the fame of Pompey was by no means inconsiderable, nay, at this time his reputation was in most vigorous flower in consequence of the valiant deeds which he performed in the cause of Sulla, deeds for which he was given the surname of “Magnus” (that is, Great) by Sulla, and received the honours of a triumph while he was still beardless. Therefore, too, many of the cities which were subject to Sertorius turned their eyes towards Pompey and felt inclined to change their allegiance; they ceased to do this, however, after the disaster at Lauron, which happened contrary to all expectation.
[Sert. 18.3] 3 For Sertorius was besieging that city, and Pompey came to its assistance with all his forces. Now there was a hill which was thought to afford a good command of the city, and this hill Sertorius strove to seize in advance, while Pompey sought to prevent him. But Sertorius got there first, whereupon Pompey, taking position with his army, was delighted with the way things had turned out, believing that Sertorius was caught between the city and his adversary’s forces; he also sent a messenger in to the people of Lauron bidding them be of good cheer and take seats along their walls for the spectacle of Sertorius undergoing siege. 4 When Sertorius heard of this, he gave a laugh, and said that to Sulla’s pupil (for thus he was wont to style Pompey in jest) he himself would give a lesson, namely, that a general must look behind him rather than in front of him. As he said this, he pointed out to his beleaguered troops six thousand men-at arms whom he had left behind at their former camp, from which he had sallied forth to seize the hill; these, in case Pompey moved against the occupants of the hill, were to fall upon his rear. 5 Pompey also became aware of this all too late, and did not venture to attack Sertorius for fear of being surrounded, but he was ashamed to go away and leave the people of the city in their peril, and so was compelled to sit there quietly and see them ruined; for the Barbarians gave up all hope and surrendered to Sertorius. 6 Sertorius spared their lives and let them all go, but he burned down their city, not because he was angry or cruel, for he appears to have given way to passion less than any other general, but to put to shame and confusion the admirers of Pompey, in order that it might be said among the Barbarians that though he was near at hand and all but warming himself at the flames of an allied city, he did not come to its relief.
[Sert. 19.1] 19 1 It is true that Sertorius suffered several defeats, and yet he always kept himself and his own forces undefeated, and got his crushing blows where other generals than he were in command; and from the way in which he repaired his defeats he was more admired than the victorious generals opposed to him, as, for instance, in the battle on the Sucro against Pompey, and, again, in the battle near Turia against both Pompey and Metellus. 2 Now, the battle on the Sucro is said to have been precipitated by Pompey, in order that Metellus might not share in the victory. Sertorius, too, wished to fight the issue out with Pompey before Metellus came up, and therefore drew out his forces when evening was already at hand, and began the engagement, thinking that, since his enemies were strangers and unacquainted with the region, darkness would be a hindrance to them either in flight or in pursuit. 3 When the fighting was at close quarters, it happened that Sertorius was not himself engaged with Pompey at first, but with Afranius, who commanded Pompey’s left, while Sertorius himself was stationed on the right. Hearing, however, that those of his men who were engaged with Pompey were yielding before his onset and being worsted, he put his right wing in command of other generals, and hastened himself to the help of the wing that was suffering defeat. 4 Those of his men who were already in retreat he rallied, those who were still keeping their ranks he encouraged, then charged anew upon Pompey, who was pursuing, and put his men to a great rout, in which Pompey also came near to being killed, was actually wounded, and had a marvellous escape. For the Libyans with Sertorius, after getting Pompey’s horse, which had golden decorations and was covered with costly trappings, were so busy distributing the booty and quarrelling with one another over it, that they soon neglected the pursuit. 5 Afranius, however, as soon as Sertorius had gone off to the other wing with aid and succour, routed his opponents and drove them headlong into their camp; and dashing in with the fugitives, it being now dark, he began to plunder, knowing nothing of Pompey’s flight and having no power to keep his soldiers from their pillaging. But meanwhile Sertorius came back from his victory on the other wing, and falling upon the straggling and confused soldiers of Afranius, slew great numbers of them. 6 In the morning, moreover, he armed his troops and came out for battle; then, learning that Metellus was near, he broke up his array and decamped, saying: “But as for this boy, if that old woman had not come up, I should have given him a sound beating and sent him back to Rome.”
[Sert. 20.1] 20 1 He was now greatly disheartened because that doe of his was nowhere to be found; for he was thus deprived of a wonderful contrivance for influencing the Barbarians, who at this time particularly stood in need of encouragement. Soon, however, some men who were roaming about at night on other errands came upon the doe, recognized her by her colour, and caught her. 2 When Sertorius heard of it he promised to give the men a large sum of money if they would tell no one of the capture, and after concealing the doe and allowing several days to pass, he came forth with a glad countenance and proceeded to the tribunal, telling the leaders of the Barbarians that the deity was foretelling him in his dreams some great good fortune. Then he ascended the tribunal and began to deal with the applicants. 3 And now the doe was released by her keepers at a point close by, spied Sertorius, and bounded joyfully towards the tribunal, and standing by his side put her head in his lap and licked his hand, as she had been wont to do before. Sertorius returned her caresses appropriately and even shed a few tears, whereupon the bystanders were struck with amazement at first, and then, convinced that Sertorius was a marvellous man and dear to the gods, escorted him with shouts and clapping of hands to his home, and were full of confidence and good hopes.
[Sert. 21.1] 21 1 In the plains of Saguntum, after he had reduced his enemies to the greatest straits, he was forced to give them battle when they came out for plunder and forage. Both sides fought splendidly. Memmius, the most capable of Pompey’s generals, fell in the thickest of the battle, and Sertorius was carrying all before him, and, with great slaughter of the enemy who still held together, was forcing his way towards Metellus himself. 2 Then Metellus, who was holding his ground with a vigour that belied his years, and fighting gloriously, was struck by a spear. All the Romans who saw or heard of this were seized with shame at the thought of deserting their commander, and at the same time were filled with rage against the enemy. So, after they had covered Metellus with their shields and carried him out of danger, they stoutly drove the Iberians back. 3 Victory had now changed sides, and therefore Sertorius, contriving a safe retreat for his men and devising the quiet assembly of another force for himself, took refuge in a strong city among the mountains, and there began to repair the walls and strengthen the gates, although his purpose was anything rather than to stand a siege. 4 But he completely deceived his enemies; for they sat down to invest him and expected to take the place without difficulty, and thus suffered the Barbarians who were in flight to escape, and took no heed of the force that was being collected anew for Sertorius. And collected it was, after Sertorius had sent officers to the cities, with orders that as soon as they had a large body of troops, they should send a messenger to him. 5 Then, when the cities sent their messengers, he cut his way through the enemy with no trouble and effected a junction with his new troops; and so once more he advanced upon the enemy with large reinforcements and began to cut off their land supplies by means of ambuscades, flank movements, and swift marches in every direction, and their maritime supplies by besetting the coast with piratical craft; so that the Roman generals were compelled to separate, Metellus retiring into Gaul, and Pompey spending the winter among the Vaccaei. Here he suffered much from lack of supplies, and wrote to the senate that he would bring his army home unless they sent him money, since he had already exhausted his own resources in the war for the defence of Italy. 6 Indeed, this story was prevalent in Rome, that Sertorius would come back to Italy before Pompey did. To such straits were the first and ablest generals of the time reduced by the skill of Sertorius.
[Sert. 22.1] 22 1 And Metellus also made it clear that he was afraid of Sertorius and considered him a great leader. For he made proclamation that to any Roman who should kill Sertorius he would give a hundred talents of silver and twenty thousand acres of land, and to any exile, freedom to return to Rome; implying his despair of openly defeating the man by this attempt to purchase his betrayal. 2 Moreover, after a victory which he once won over Sertorius he was so elated and delighted with his success that his soldiers saluted him as Imperator and the cities celebrated his visits to them with altars and sacrifices. Nay, it is said that he suffered wreaths to be bound upon his head and accepted invitations to stately banquets, at which he wore a triumphal robe as he drank his wine, while Victories, made to move by machinery, descended and distributed golden trophies and wreaths, and choirs of boys and women sang hymns of victory in his praise. 3 For this it was natural that men should laugh at him, since, while calling Sertorius a runaway slave of Sulla and a remnant of the routed party of Carbo, he was so puffed up with pride and overjoyed merely because he had won an advantage over Sertorius and Sertorius had retired before him.
[Sert. 22.4] But the magnanimity of Sertorius showed itself, firstly, in his giving the name of senate to the senators who fled from Rome and joined his cause, appointing quaestors and praetors from their number, 4 and making all such arrangements in accordance with the customs of his country; and, secondly, in his using the arms, wealth, and cities of the Iberians without even pretending to yield to the Iberians themselves a portion of the supreme power, but selecting Roman generals and commanders over them, feeling that he was recovering freedom for the Romans, and not strengthening the inhabitants against the Romans. 5 For he was a man who loved his country and had a strong desire to return home from exile. And yet in his misfortunes he played a brave man’s part and would not humble himself at all before his enemies; while as a victor he would send to Metellus and Pompey expressing his readiness to lay down his arms and lead the life of a private citizen if he could get the privilege of returning home, since, as he said, he preferred to live in Rome as her meanest citizen rather than to live in exile from his country and be called supreme ruler of all the rest of the world together.
[Sert. 22.6] 6 We are told that his desire for his native country was due in large measure to his attachment to his mother, by whom he was reared after his father’s death, and to whom he was entirely devoted. When his friends in Spain were inviting him to take the leadership there, he learned of the death of his mother, and almost died of grief. For seven days he lay prostrate in his tent without giving out a watchword or being seen by any of his friends, and it was only with difficulty that his fellow-generals and the men of like rank with him who surrounded his tent could force him to come forth and meet the soldiers and take part in their enterprises, which were moving on well. 7 Therefore many people were led to think that he was a man of gentle temper and naturally disposed to a quiet life, but was practically forced against his wishes into the career of a soldier, where, not achieving safety, but being driven by his enemies to have recourse to arms, he encompassed himself with war as a necessary protection to his person.
[Sert. 23.1] 23 1 His negotiations with Mithridates also gave proof of his magnanimity. For Mithridates, after the fall which Sulla gave him, rose up, as it were, for another wrestling bout and tried once more to get the province of Asia into his power. At this time, too, the fame of Sertorius was already great and was travelling every whither, and sailors from the west had filled the kingdom of Pontus full of the tales about him, like so many foreign wares. 2 Mithridates was therefore eager to send an embassy to him, and was incited thereto most of all by the foolish exaggerations of his flatterers. These likened Sertorius to Hannibal and Mithridates to Pyrrhus, and declared that the Romans, attacked on both sides, could not hold out against two such natures and forces combined, when the ablest of generals was in alliance with the greatest of kings. 3 So Mithridates sent envoys to Iberia carrying letters and oral propositions to Sertorius, the purport of which was that Mithridates for his part promised to furnish money and ships for the war, but demanded that Sertorius confirm him in the possession of the whole of Asia, which he had yielded to the Romans by virtue of the treaties made with Sulla. 4 Sertorius assembled a council, which he called a senate, and here the rest urged him to accept the king’s proposals and be well content with them; for they were asked to grant a name and an empty title to what was not in their possession, and would receive therefor that of which they stood most in need. He said he had no objection to Mithridates taking Bithynia and Cappadocia, countries used to kings and of no concern whatever to the Romans; 5 but a province which Mithridates had taken away and held when it belonged in the justest manner to the Romans, from which he had been driven by Fimbria in war, and which he had renounced by treaty with Sulla, — this province Sertorius said he would not suffer to become the king’s again; for the Roman state must be increased by his exercise of power, and he must not exercise power at the expense of the state. For to a man of noble spirit victory is to be desired if it comes with honour, but with shame not even life itself.
[Sert. 24.1] 24 1 When this was reported to Mithridates he acted like one amazed; and we are told that he said to his friends: “What terms, pray, will Sertorius impose when he is seated on the Palatine, if now, after he has been driven forth to the Atlantic sea, he sets bounds to our kingdom and threatens us with war if we try to get Asia?” 2 However, a treaty was actually made and ratified with oaths. Mithridates was to have Cappadocia and Bithynia, Sertorius sending him a general and soldiers, while Sertorius was to receive from Mithridates three thousand talents and forty ships. 3 Accordingly, a general was sent to Asia by Sertorius, one of the senators who had taken refuge with him, Marcus Marius. He was assisted by Mithridates in the capture of certain cities of Asia, and when he entered them with fasces and axes, Mithridates would follow him in person, voluntarily assuming second rank and the position of a vassal. 4 Marius gave some of the cities their freedom, and wrote to others announcing their exemption from taxation by grace of Sertorius, so that Asia, which was once more harassed by the revenue-farmers and oppressed by the rapacity and arrogance of the soldiers quartered there, was all of a flutter with new hopes and yearned for the expected change of supremacy.
[Sert. 25.1] 25 1 But in Spain, as soon as the senators and men of equal rank about Sertorius felt confident that they were a match for their enemies and dismissed their fears, they were seized with envy and foolish jealousy of their leader. They were encouraged in these feelings by Perpenna, whose high birth filled him with vain aspirations for the chief command, and he would hold malevolent discourses in secret among his associates: 2 “What evil genius, pray, has seized us and is hurrying us from bad to worse? We would not consent to remain at home and do the bidding of Sulla when he was lord of all the earth and sea together, but we came to this land of destruction with the idea of living like freemen, and are now voluntarily slaves in the body-guard of Sertorius the exile, being a senate, a name jeered at by all who hear it, and submitting to no lesser insults, injunctions, and toils than Iberians and Lusitanians.” 3 Most of his hearers, their minds infected with such sentiments as these, did not, indeed, openly desert Sertorius, because they were in fear of his power; but they secretly tried to vitiate his enterprises, and abused the Barbarians with severe punishments and exactions, on the plea that Sertorius thus ordered. Consequently there were revolts and disturbances among the cities. 4 And those who were sent to assuage and cure these disorders brought more wars to pass before they returned, and increased the existing insubordination, so that Sertorius laid aside his former clemency and mildness and wrought injustice upon the sons of the Iberians who were being educated at Osca, killing some, and selling others into slavery.
[Sert. 26.1] 26 1 Perpenna, accordingly, having now more accomplices in his attempt upon Sertorius, brought into their number Manlius also, one of those in high command. This Manlius was enamoured of a beautiful boy, and as a mark of his affection for him told him of the conspiracy, bidding him neglect his other lovers and devote himself to him alone, since within a few days he was to be a great personage. But the boy carried the tale to another one of his lovers, Aufidius, to whom he was more devoted. 2 And Aufidius, on hearing the story, was astounded; for though he himself was a party to the conspiracy against Sertorius, he did not know that Manlius was. But since the boy mentioned by name Perpenna, Gracinus, and sundry others of those whom Aufidius knew to be among the conspirators, Aufidius was confounded, and after making light of the story to the boy and exhorting him to despise Manlius as an empty braggart, he himself went to Perpenna, told him of the sharpness of the crisis and of their peril, and urged him to attempt the deed. 3 The conspirators were persuaded, and after providing a man to act as the bearer of letters, they introduced him to Sertorius. His letters made known a victory of one of the generals serving under Sertorius, and a great slaughter of the enemy. At this Sertorius was overjoyed and offered a sacrifice of glad tidings, during which Perpenna proposed a banquet for him and his friends who were present (and these were of the conspiracy), and after much entreaty persuaded him to come.
[Sert. 26.4] 4 Now, the suppers at which Sertorius was present were always marked by restraint and decorum, since he would not consent to see or hear anything that was disgraceful, but held his associates to the practice of indulging only in mirth and merriment that was decorous and restrained. On this occasion, however, when the drinking was well under way, the guests, seeking occasion for a quarrel, openly indulged in dissolute language, and pretending to be drunk, committed many indecencies, with the hope of angering Sertorius. 5 But he, either because he was vexed at their disorderly conduct, or because he had become aware of their purpose from the boldness of their talk and their unwonted contempt for his wishes, changed his posture on the couch and threw himself upon his back, as though he neither heard nor regarded them. But when Perpenna, after taking a cup of wine in his hands, dropped it as he was drinking and made a clatter with it, which was their signal, Antonius, who reclined above Sertorius on the couch, smote him with his sword. 6 Sertorius turned at the blow and would have risen with his assailant, but Antonius fell upon his chest and seized both his hands, so that he could make no defence even, and died from the blows of many.
[Sert. 27.1] 27 1 Well, then, most of the Iberians immediately went away, sent ambassadors to Pompey and Metellus, and delivered themselves up to them; but taking under his command those who remained, Perpenna attempted to do something. After using the materials provided by Sertorius just enough to cut a sorry figure and make it clear that he was fitted by nature neither to command nor to obey, he attacked Pompey; 2 and having been quickly crushed by him and taken prisoner, he did not even endure this extreme misfortune as a leader should, but, being in possession of the papers of Sertorius, he promised to show Pompey autograph letters from men of consular rank and of the highest influence in Rome, in which they invited Sertorius to come to Italy, assuring him that there were many there who desired eagerly to stir up a revolution and change the constitution. 3 Pompey, then, did not act in this emergency like a young man, but like one whose understanding was right well matured and disciplined, and so freed Rome from revolutionary terrors. For he got together those letters and all the papers of Sertorius and burned them, without reading them himself or suffer anyone else to do so; and Perpenna himself he speedily put to death, through fear that seditions and disturbances might arise if the names of the correspondents of Sertorius were communicated to anybody.
[Sert. 27.4] 4 Of Perpenna’s fellow conspirators, some were brought to Pompey and put to death, others fled to Africa and fell victims to the spears of the Maurusians. Not one escaped, except Aufidius, the rival of Manlius; he, either because men did not notice him or because they did not heed him, came to old age in a barbarian village, a poor and hated man.

## Comparison of Eumenes and Sertorius

[Comp. Eum.–Sert. 1.1] 595 1 1 Such are the memorable things in the careers of Eumenes and Sertorius which have come down to us. And now, as we compare the men, we find this common to both, that although they were strangers, aliens, and exiles, they were continually in command of all sorts of peoples and of armies that were large and warlike; but it was peculiar to Sertorius that he held a command which was given him by all his confederates because of his reputation, and to Eumenes that many contended with him for the leadership, and yet he took the highest place in consequence of his achievements. Furthermore, the one was followed by those who wished to be under a just command; while the other was obeyed by those who were incapable of command and sought their own advantage. 2 For the one, a Roman, commanded Iberians and Lusitanians, who had long been in subjection to Rome; the other, a Chersonesian, commanded Macedonians, who at that time were holding the whole world in subjection. Besides, Sertorius rose to leadership when a career in senate and field had brought him admiration; but Eumenes when his post as secretary had brought him contempt. Eumenes, therefore, not only had fewer advantages at the outset, but also greater hindrances as he advanced in his career. 3 For there were many who directly opposed him and secretly plotted against him; whereas Sertorius was openly opposed by no one, and secretly only in the latter part of his career, when a few of his confederates rose up against him. For this reason Sertorius could put an end to his peril by a victory over his enemies; while Eumenes, in consequence of his victories, was in peril at the hands of those who envied him.
[Comp. Eum.–Sert. 2.1] 2 1 In their capacities as commanders, then, they were very much alike; but in their general dispositions Eumenes was fond of war and fond of strife, while Sertorius was a lover of peace and tranquillity. For the one, though it was in his power to live in safety and with honour if he kept out of the way of the leading Macedonians, was continually fighting them at the risk of his life; whereas the other, though he craved no participation in affairs, had to wage war for his very life against those who would not suffer him to be at peace. 2 For if Eumenes had stood aside from the struggles for the primacy and been satisfied with the second place, Antigonus would gladly have given him that; whereas Sertorius could not get permission from Pompey to live, even though in retirement. Therefore the one was ever waging war of his own accord for the sake of power; while the other held power against his wishes because war was waged upon him. 3 Now, that man is fond of war who sets greed above safety; but that man is warlike who by war wins safety.
[Comp. Eum.–Sert. 2.4] And further, the one met his death when he had no anticipation of it, the other when he was expecting the end. In the one case, death resulted from the man’s goodness of heart, since he appeared to trust his friends; in the other, from weakness, since he wished to fly, but was arrested. 4 Moreover, death brought no stain upon the life of Sertorius, since he suffered at the hands of confederates what none of his enemies could inflict upon him; 596 Eumenes, however, who was unable to fly before being taken prisoner, but was willing to live after being taken prisoner, neither took good precautions against death, nor faced it well, but by supplicating and entreating the foe who was known to have power over his body also, he made him lord and master of his spirit also.